From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcartelcar‧tel /kɑːˈtel $ kɑːr-/ noun [countable] PEa group of people or companies who agree to sell something at a particular price in order to prevent competition and increase profits → monopoly an illegal drug cartel
Examples from the Corpus
cartel• a drug cartel• Many of its narcotics agents may well be assisting the drug cartels and their hit squads.• Oddly, consuming countries are also members of the International Coffee Organisation, which policed the old cartel.• This sounds as if they are joining the cartel, but it will cut world production by only 1/2%.• The generally acknowledged leader of the cartel is Benjamin Arellano, who usually keeps a low profile.• Santacruz was arrested in a Bogota restaurant in July, one of six top leaders of the cartel arrested last summer.• Prosecutors said the cartel wanted to increase its presence in Baja California, which is dominated by the Arellano F lix cartel.• These cartel prices were then rubber-stamped by the member state governments.• We will introduce new legislation giving stronger powers to deal with cartels.From Longman Business Dictionarycartelcar‧tel /kɑːˈtelkɑːr-/ noun [countable]ORGANIZATIONS a group of companies who agree to set the price of something they produce at a fixed level in order to limit competition and increase their own profitsThe oil cartel, OPEC, had just had its first major success in forcing up oil prices.a cartel of coffee producersOrigin cartel (1500-1600) French “document”, from Old Italian cartello, from carta; → CARD1 