Norwegian Cartels: Law, Policy, Registration and Practice under the Price and Competition Act between 1954 and 1993

Abstract

Twentieth-century cartel registers, operated in a number of countries predominantly from around 1950 to the early 1990s, are a new international field of research. Such registers provide empirical data for research in a variety of fields, including law and economics. This article gives an overview of Norwegian cartel regulation, policy, registration and practice from 1954 to 1993, that is the period in which the Norwegian Price and Competition Act 1953 remained in force. To do so, we combine legal sources, historical accounts and a unique dataset collected and coded from the Norwegian Cartel Registry. In 1957 and 1960, vertical and horizontal price fixing respectively was generally prohibited. Using Norwegian cartel register data, we discuss whether and how these regulatory changes affected Norwegian cartel activity and organisation. We find that Norwegian cartels were long-lived, and that the typical cartel was a pure pricing cartel. Notwithstanding a lenient exemption policy, the prohibitions reduced the number of pricing cartels. The reduction was largely caused by the composition of entering cartels, as well as pricing cartels leaving the market. Very few cartels seemingly changed their cartel agreements. Our data suggests that established cartels were, perhaps surprisingly, non-flexible with regard to alternative modes of anti-competitive coordination.