> In the late 1920s, a Swedish-Danish-Norwegian union of companies (the North European Luma Co-op Society) planned an independent manufacturing center. Economic and legal threats by Phoebus did not achieve the desired effect, and in 1931 the Scandinavians produced and sold lamps at a considerably lower price than Phoebus.
WW2 might have been the deathknell but it was already well on its way to its own demise.
Cartels only really work when you have governments to enforce them (see: wireless and ISP pricing in Canada)... these voluntary cartels very rarely work for a long period of time in a 'free market'. At most they'll get a few years before the public and competitors realize it.
This entire scheme was predicated on the benefit of the lack of awareness by the public/markets. In the 1920s you could rely on a lack of free flow of information (or at most a severely inefficient flow of information), such as pricing awareness in different markets:
> The cartel operated without the knowledge of the public
The internet would have killed this type of thing way faster. But given it was the 1920s and an international operation in a pre-global marketplace it took some time for competition to react. Plus many of the 'controlled' markets were colonial countries where information/markets could be far easier to control than an actual free market with a free press.
> these voluntary cartels very rarely work for a long period of time in a 'free market'.
The Phoebus Cartel worked for fifteen years. That's plenty of time to prove that "free" markets just don't work.
> Cartels only really work when you have governments to enforce them (see: wireless and ISP pricing in Canada)
I don't know about the specifics of the situtation in Canada, but networks are natural monopolies. Competition does not make sense in that sphere to begin with.
