controlled about 90 percent of the French soap market. Officials from the soap firms were meeting secretly, in out-

of-the-way, small cafés around Paris. Their goals: Stamp out competition and set prices.

Around the same time, the top five Midwest ice makers (Home City Ice, Lang Ice, Tinley Ice, Sisler’s Dairy, and

Products of Ohio) had similar goals in mind when they secretly agreed to divide up the bagged ice market.

If both groups could meet their goals, it would enable each to act as though they were a single firm—in essence, a
238 10 • Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly

monopoly—and enjoy monopoly-size profits. The problem? In many parts of the world, including the European Union

and the United States, it is illegal for firms to divide markets and set prices collaboratively.

These two cases provide examples of markets that are characterized neither as perfect competition nor monopoly.
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