For each of the situations described, determine whether the firms involved are part of a cartel or are simply colluding.
(A) Landscaping company owners in a county hold an annual meeting at a hotel. There, owners make contact with industry leaders, share cost-saving ideas, and set minimum prices for services in the coming year. Owners who set prices below these minimums are not invited to next year's meeting.
Landscaping company owners who attend the meeting:

a) have formed a cartel.
b) are engaged in collusion but are not part of a cartel.
c) are acting competitively.

(B) Most hot dog carts in a city sell hot dogs for $3.00 each. Each stand makes comparable products, but each is independently owned and operated. The marginal cost of selling hot dogs on the street is around $1.00, but owners have maintained the $3.00 price point for several years. The cart owners are not in regular contact.
Hot dog vendors in this city:

a) are acting competitively since they cannot change the going price of hot dogs.
b) are colluding with one another but not as part of a cartel.
c) have formed a cartel.

(C) Three friends start a bakery in the east side of a city. There is a higher demand for baked goods on the west side of the city, but the bakery owners refrain from expanding there due to a large number of well-established bakeries already there.
The east side bakery owners are:

a) colluding with the well-established bakeries on the west side of the city.
b) acting competitively by avoiding a poor business decision.
c) responding to cartel pressure to stay in their own territory.

(D) A city has two major nut vending companies. L. M. Nutz operates roasted nut carts on the north side of the city, while Go Go Nuts operates carts on the south side of the city. Both companies operate at high margins and have a robust distribution infrastructure that would allow them to operate city wide, but each company operates exclusively on its end of town.
L. M. Nutz and Go Go Nuts:

a) collude with one another to maintain market power in their respective areas.
b) are acting competitively, entering the other company's market will likely start an unprofitable price war.
c) have formed a roasted nut cartel.