BID RIGGING CONSTITUTES a violation antitrust law. It is closely related to horizontal pricefixing, [Page 94]in that both offenses involve collusion between supposed competitors in the same market group. Horizontal price fixing is a conspiracy between businesses at the same market level to set a fixed price for their product. That price is often set well above of what the price would be if it were set in a truly competitive market.

For example, two large beverage companies have been charged several times over the years with fixing the price of soft drink syrups, as well as the price of the final soft drink product. Were the companies to have competed honestly in the market, it is likely that the price of those products would have ...