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Competition law
Basic concepts
History of competition law Monopoly Coercive monopoly Natural monopoly Barriers to entry Herfindahl–Hirschman Index Market concentration Market power SSNIP test Relevant market Merger control
Anti-competitive practices
Monopolization Collusion Formation of cartels Price fixing Bid rigging Product bundling and tying Refusal to deal Group boycott Essential facilities Exclusive dealing Dividing territories Conscious parallelism Predatory pricing Misuse of patents and copyrights
Enforcement authorities and organizations
International Competition Network List of competition regulators
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Collusion is an agreement between two or more persons, sometimes illegal and therefore secretive, to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading, or defrauding others of their legal rights, or to obtain an objective forbidden by law typically by defrauding or gaining an unfair advantage.^{[citation needed]} It is an agreement among firms to divide the market, set prices, or limit production.^[1] It can involve "wage fixing, kickbacks, or misrepresenting the independence of the relationship between the colluding parties".^[2] In legal terms, all acts affected by collusion are considered void.^[3]

Definition[link]

In the study of economics and market competition, collusion takes place within an industry when rival companies cooperate for their mutual benefit. Collusion most often takes place within the market structure of oligopoly, where the decision of a few firms to collude can significantly impact the market as a whole. Cartels are a special case of explicit collusion. Collusion which is not overt, on the other hand, is known as tacit collusion.

Variations[link]

According to neoclassical price-determination theory and game theory, the independence of suppliers forces prices to their minimum, increasing efficiency and decreasing the price determining ability of each individual firm. However, if firms collude to increase prices, loss of sales is minimized, as consumers lack alternative choices at lower prices. This benefits the colluding firms at the cost of efficiency to society.

One variation of this traditional theory is the theory of kinked demand. Firms face a kinked demand curve if, when one firm decreases its price, other firms will follow suit in order to maintain sales, and when one firm increases its price, its rivals are unlikely to follow, as they would lose the sales' gains that they would otherwise get by holding prices at the previous level. Kinked demand potentially fosters supra-competitive prices because any one firm would receive a reduced benefit from cutting price, as opposed to the benefits accruing under neoclassical theory and certain game theoretic models such as Bertrand competition.

Indicators[link]

Practices that suggest collusion include:

• Uniform prices
• A penalty for price discounts
• Advance notice of price changes
• Information exchange

Examples[link]

Collusion is largely illegal in the United States, Canada and most of the EU due to competition/antitrust law, but implicit collusion in the form of price leadership and tacit understandings still takes place. Several examples of collusion in the United States include:

• Market division and price-fixing among manufacturers of heavy electrical equipment in the 1960s, including General Electric.^[4]
• An attempt by Major League Baseball owners to restrict players' salaries in the mid-1980s.
• The sharing of potential contract terms by NBA free agents in an effort to help a targeted franchise circumvent the salary cap
• Price fixing within food manufacturers providing cafeteria food to schools and the military in 1993.
• Market division and output determination of livestock feed additive, called lysine, by companies in the US, Japan and South Korea in 1996, Archer Daniels Midland being the most notable of these.^[5]
• Chip dumping in poker or any other high stake card game.

There are many ways that implicit collusion tends to develop:

• The practice of stock analyst conference calls and meetings of industry participants almost necessarily results in tremendous amounts of strategic and price transparency. This allows each firm to see how and why every other firm is pricing their products.
• If the practice of the industry causes more complicated pricing, which is hard for the consumer to understand (such as risk-based pricing, hidden taxes and fees in the wireless industry, negotiable pricing), this can cause competition based on price to be meaningless (because it would be too complicated to explain to the customer in a short advertisement). This causes industries to have essentially the same prices and compete on advertising and image, something theoretically as damaging to consumers as normal price fixing.^{[citation needed]}

Barriers[link]

There can be significant barriers to collusion. In any given industry, these may include:

• The number of firms: As the number of firms in an industry increases, it is more difficult to successfully organize, collude and communicate.
• Cost and demand differences between firms: If costs vary significantly between firms, it may be impossible to establish a price at which to fix output.
• Cheating: There is considerable incentive to cheat on collusion agreements; although lowering prices might trigger price wars, in the short term the defecting firm may gain considerably. This phenomenon is frequently referred to as "chiseling".
• Potential entry: New firms may enter the industry, establishing a new baseline price and eliminating collusion (though anti-dumping laws and tariffs can prevent foreign companies entering the market).
• Economic recession: An increase in average total cost or a decrease in revenue provides incentive to compete with rival firms in order to secure a larger market share and increased demand.

See also[link]

• Collusive lawsuit
• Conscious parallelism
• Corporate crime
• Baseball collusion
• Bowl Championship Series

References[link]

1. ^ Sullivan, arthur; Steven M. Sheffrin (2003). Economics: Principles in action. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall. pp. 171. ISBN 0-13-063085-3. http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZ3R9&PMDbSiteId=2781&PMDbSolutionId=6724&PMDbCategoryId=&PMDbProgramId=12881&level=4. 
2. ^ Collusion Law & Legal Definition
3. ^ Collusion [1]. Archived 2009-10-31.
4. ^ Encyclopedia of white-collar & corporate crime. http://books.google.com/books?id=0f7yTNb_V3QC&pg=PA377&lpg=PA377&dq=market+division+collusion+heavy+electrical+equipment++1960. 
5. ^ Hunter-Gault, Charlayne (October 15, 1996). "ADM: Who's Next?". MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour (PBS). http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/october96/adm_10-15.html. Retrieved on 2007-10-17.

• Vives, X. (1999) Oligopoly pricing, MIT Press, Cambridge MA (readable; suitable for advanced undergraduates.)
• Tirole, J. (1988) The Theory of Industrial Organization, MIT Press, Cambridge MA (An organized introduction to industrial organization)
• Tirole, J. (1986), "Hierarchies and Bureaucracies", Journal of Law Economics and Organization, vol. 2, pp. 181–214.
• Tirole, J. (1992), "Collusion and the Theory of Organizations", Advances in Economic Theory: Proceedings of the Sixth World Congress of the Econometric Society, ed by J.-J. Laffont. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, vol.2:151-206.

Serge Halimi is a journalist with the Le Monde diplomatique since 1992. In March 2008 he became the editorial director.^[1] He is also the author of Le Grand Bond en Arrière.

Biography[link]

Serge Halimi was elected editorial director of Le Monde diplomatique on December 17, 2007. He assumed the position on March 1, 2008, replacing Ignacio Ramonet. Before that, he served as a journalist at the newspaper.

References[link]

1. ^ To Our Readers, Le Monde diplomatique March 2008

External links[link]

• Articles by Serge Halimi in Le Monde diplomatique

This biographical article about a print editor is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Gary Kovacs is the CEO of Mozilla Corporation;^[1] a position he assumed on 8 November 2010. He had previously worked for Adobe Systems and IBM.^[2]

References[link]

This business-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Luke Bryan
Bryan in April 2010
Background information
Birth name	Thomas Luther Bryan[1]
Born	(1976-07-17) July 17, 1976 (age 35)[2] Leesburg, Georgia, USA[3]
Genres	Country
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, acoustic guitar
Years active	2005-present
Labels	Capitol Nashville
Associated acts	Billy Currington, Jason Aldean, Ash Bowers, Travis Tritt, Lady Antebellum, Jeff Stevens
Website	www.lukebryan.com

Luke Bryan (born July 17, 1976) is an American country singer. Bryan began his musical career in the mid-2000s, writing songs for Travis Tritt and Billy Currington. After signing with Capitol Records Nashville in 2007, he released the album I'll Stay Me, which included the singles "All My Friends Say", "We Rode in Trucks" and "Country Man". Followup album Doin' My Thing included "Do I", which Bryan co-wrote with Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum, and the number one singles "Rain Is a Good Thing" and "Someone Else Calling You Baby". Tailgates & Tanlines, released in 2011, includes "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)" and his third number one, "I Don't Want This Night to End". Bryan co-wrote all of his singles with the exception of "Drunk on You" and co-produced all three albums with Jeff Stevens.

Biography[link]

Bryan was born and raised in Leesburg, Georgia. At age fourteen, his parents bought him his first guitar, and after learning to play it, he joined various local bands and began to play in local clubs.^[3] After graduating Lee County High School, Bryan planned to move to Nashville, Tennessee; however, this move was delayed, due to the death of his brother, Chris, on the same day he planned to leave. Luke attended Georgia Southern University, and is a member of the Eta Zeta chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.^[4] After graduation Luke went to work for his dad, despite everyone encouraging him to move to Tennessee. His dad encouraged him to relocate and he arrived in Nashville in 2001, signing a record deal only two months later.^[5]

[edit] 2007-2008: I'll Stay Me

He moved to Nashville on September 1, 2001 and landed a deal as a songwriter within two months. In that time his first serious girlfriend was Terri Hasty. ^[3] Among his first cuts was the title track of Travis Tritt's 2004 album My Honky Tonk History.^[6] An A&R representative at Capitol Records saw Bryan perform at a club, and signed him to a recording contract. In the meantime, Bryan co-wrote Billy Currington's single "Good Directions", which went to number 1 on the Hot Country Songs charts in mid-2007.^[7] Bryan co-wrote his debut single, "All My Friends Say", with producer Jeff Stevens. This song reached a peak of number 5 on Hot Country Songs in mid-2007. In August 2007, Capitol released Bryan's debut album, I'll Stay Me.^[8] Bryan wrote or co-wrote all but one of its 11 songs. The album's second single, "We Rode in Trucks", peaked at number 33 in early 2008, while "Country Man" reached number 10.

Thom Jurek of Allmusic gave the album a positive review, considering Bryan's lyrics "in the mainline of honky tonk tradition" although he thought some of the sound was "calculated".^[8]

[edit] 2009-2010: Doin' My Thing

In March 2009, he released an exclusive EP to iTunes titled Spring Break With All My Friends that featured two new songs, "Sorority Girls" and "Take My Drunk Ass Home," plus an acoustic version of "All My Friends Say." After this EP, he released his fourth single, "Do I". Bryan wrote the song with Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood of Lady Antebellum, whose lead singer Hillary Scott also sings backing vocals on it.^[9] It debuted at number 53 on the country singles charts dated for May 9, 2009 and reached number 2 in December, having been held from the Number One spot by Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now". "Do I" was included on Bryan's second album, Doin' My Thing, which was released in October 2009. Also included on the album was a cover of OneRepublic's "Apologize".^[10] Bryan wrote the album's next two singles, "Rain Is a Good Thing" and "Someone Else Calling You Baby", with Dallas Davidson and Jeff Stevens, respectively. Both of these songs went to number 1 on the country music charts.

Allmusic gave this album a positive review as well, with Stephen Thomas Erlewine considering Bryan more "relaxed" in comparison to his debut.^[10]

[edit] 2011-present: Tailgates & Tanlines

Bryan released his seventh single, "Country Girl (Shake It for Me)", to country radio on March 14, 2011. Also co-written by Bryan and Davidson, it served as the lead-off single to his third studio album, Tailgates & Tanlines, which was released August 13' 2011. The album debuted at number 1 on the Top Country Albums and number 2 on the Billboard 200. "Country Girl" peaked at number 4 on the country charts and number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100. Bryan co-wrote the album's second single, "I Don't Want This Night to End", with Davidson, Rhett Akins and Ben Hayslip, who are collectively known as the Peach Pickers. In early 2012, this song became Bryan's third number 1. "Drunk On You" is the album's third single. On March 6, 2012, Bryan released his fourth Spring Break EP entitled Spring Break 4 ... Suntan City. Along with the title track, which Bryan co-wrote with Dallas Davidson, Rhett Akins and Ben Hayslip, the EP includes "Spring Breakup,"Little Bit Later On" and "Shake the Sand."^[11]

Personal life[link]

Luke Bryan married Caroline Boyer on Dec. 8, 2006. They welcomed a son, Thomas "Bo" Boyer in March of 2008.^[12] Their second son, Tatum "Tate" Christopher, was born in August of 2010.^[13]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Extended plays[link]

Singles[link]

• ^ACurrent single.

Other charted songs[link]

Music videos[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• LukeBryan.com