This illustrates a simple idea in economics: cartels are hard to maintain because participants will look out for their own self-interest.
They may be hard to maintain, but they do spring up and may exert power while alive.
1) There is a scientific basis for the 10.000 hours, the "greatest" achievement generally attributed to Phoebus[1]:
> For a supply voltage V near the rated voltage of the lamp:
Light output is approximately proportional to V 3.4
Power consumption is approximately proportional to V 1.6
Lifetime is approximately proportional to V −16
Color temperature is approximately proportional to V 0.42[88]
> In the late 1920s a Swedish-Danish-Norwegian union of companies
(the North European Luma Co-op Society) began planning an independent
manufacturing centre. Economic and legal threats by Phoebus did not
achieve the desired effect, and in 1931 the Scandinavians produced and
sold lamps at a considerably lower price than Phoebus.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2014/01/24/1750472/why-its-tough-...