Price fixing is the conspiracy by several manufacturers to set prices for goods or services above the normal market rate. The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are the regulatory bodies responsible for determining whether companies are involved in price-fixing tactics. Both bodies have the ability to impose heavy fines on those companies found to be conspiring to fix prices.

The health care industry has been scrutinized many times for price fixing, especially companies that manufacture vitamins. In 1995, the Justice Department fined three vitamin manufacturers a total of $750 million dollars for conspiring to fix vitamin prices. In addition, three vitamin distributors were also found guilty of price fixing that same year; their fines totaled $137 million for fixing the prices for a handful of popular vitamins, and they had to pay just over $1 billion to 1000 corporate buyers of bulk vitamins, an amount...