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What qualifies as a cartel?

Abbreviated Question: 
What qualifies as a cartel?
Answer: 

Let me first state that I cannot answer the legal part of the question. Antitrust litigations often involve economists to show empirical evidence of abuse of market power and to determine the extent of damage the cartel has caused to consumers and other firms. That is, the role of economists is not to argue whether a certain behavior is legal or not but rather to examine whether it has consequential market effects. I will focus this response on how economists view wage rate information sharing.