Cartel agreements: criminalistic characteristics, difficulties of detection and counteraction

Recently, one of the most dangerous offenses in the field of economics is the creation of cartels, i.e. organized groups to maintain monopoly prices, destroy competitors. The difficulty lies in the fact that in this situation, a set of independent enterprises or countries acting together act from the position of a single producer, setting prices for the goods they produce and the services they provide without competition. The purpose of the article is to consider the specifics of cartel agreements, their criminalistic characteristics, the difficulties of identifying and countering them by antimonopoly and law enforcement agencies. It is noted that the main difference between cartel agreements is the preservation of the legal, financial, production and marketing independence of their participants. At the same time, each member of the cartel agreement remains a completely free economic unit, which is the main difficulty and specifics of identifying and countering cartel collusion. The criminalistic characteristics of cartel agreements are presented, their specific features are revealed. The latent nature of cartel agreements is pointed out, which complicates the process of countering them and preventing them from antimonopoly and law enforcement agencies. It is concluded that cartels are an inefficient practice for the state economy, as they lead to a freezing of competition and a decrease in the efficiency of market mechanisms. However, the question of how to deter companies from engaging in such anti-competitive practices remains open. In this regard, it is necessary not only to improve antimonopoly legislation and the practice of countering cartel collusion by law enforcement agencies, but also actions on the part of company management and management to develop and apply special compliance programs aimed at eliminating illegal actions on the part of employees of the organization.