A cartel is a group of people or organizations in the same industry that work together to keep prices high so they can make more money. OPEC, for example, is an oil cartel. If any one of the member countries dropped their prices, people would flock to buy from that country, and the others would have to lower prices to compete. By all agreeing to keep their prices equally high, consumers don’t have a choice and all the members of the cartel make more profit.