free trade
Agreeing to fix prices is an easier violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act than merely disengaging from markets that might lead one into a nasty price war. It's hard to tell a company "you have to sell in Greece!" or "you have to offer it in Blueberry!" but very easy to say "If you're selling Blueberry, you can't meet annually with other Blueberry-flavored vendors and agree the prices at which you will offer Blueberry."
That is to say, it's not that it might not be a conspiracy in restraint of trade, but it's harder to prove. Also, non-competition agreements are extremely common, and are often upheld as reasonable. Thus, your claim your acting reasonably is much easier to sell. Price-fixing, not so. But of course there's MSFT, and the apparent new court-made rule that the Sherman Anti-Trust Act doesn't mean in tech companies what it means everywhere else. Ha.
Take care,
--Tex.
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