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White Collar Gangland Thriving in Ireland

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  • 30-04-2012 3:07pm
    #1
    Fair Competition
    Registered Users Posts: 22 ✭


    Anti-competitive practices are costing the Irish economy circa €4 billion annually according to Dr. John Fingleton, former head of the Competition Authority. That equates to €2,400 per household. Big business is stealing from taxpayers and consumers everyday through artificially inflated prices yet successive Governments refuse to take white collar crime seriously.
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    #2
    JimiTime
    Registered Users Posts: 7,418 ✭✭✭JimiTime


    Could you give an example of such? Genuine question, as I'm not entirely sure what this means. Is it like a group of car garages getting together and fixing a price? If so, would you have examples other areas where this is actually happening?


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    #3
    Fair Competition
    Registered Users Posts: 22 ✭Fair Competition


    JimiTime wrote: »
    Could you give an example of such? Genuine question, as I'm not entirely sure what this means. Is it like a group of car garages getting together and fixing a price? If so, would you have examples other areas where this is actually happening?



    Anti-competitive practices are business or government practices that prevent or reduce competition in a market. These practices include price-fixing which aims at keeping prices high and predatory pricing which aims at evicting competitors from the market with the ultimate goal of then increasing prices and reaping the benefit of the reduced competition. There are many other forms but the above arguably reduce competition the greatest. Industries which display signs of cartelization (price fixing etc.) include cement/concrete, drinks, health insurance, printing ink, motor vehicles and many more.


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    #4
    Sleepy
    Registered Users Posts: 24,239 ✭✭✭✭Sleepy


    I think pretty much the only things I feel gouged on price wise would be electricity, petrol, cigarettes and alcohol in pubs: all mainly the result of government duty/taxation or public sector inefficiency.

    My telecoms, cable and waste are all reasonably priced private sector competitors.

    Of the things you mention, Health Insurance is something I'd like to be able to afford but given the price of certain drugs (generally justified if you're familiar with the R&D costs) and the colossal amounts of inefficiency in the HSE, I can see why private medical care is so expensive.


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