No power to cartels
A second instance of private interest which is incomparably more serious is the aspirations of the cartels in German industry. The bold as brass demands by the trade unions seek to get rid of competition and the situation is similar when it comes to the aspirations of the large enterprises. They seek to form monopolies and gang up in cartels with only one aim in mind: to turn the market mechanism upside down. The controlling law which Erhard had conceived under the supervision of the victorious powers in 1948 was later drawn up in detail and presented to the Federal Council of Germany as the “Act against Restraints on Competition” on 23 May 1952, but required a number of years of discussion and modification before it finally became law in 1957. Erhard appeared as a fierce opponent of corporate concentration. The most valuable aspect of a market economy is the freedom of the individual, but not at the expense of others. Cartels, however, curtail this freedom severely because they aim at price rigging. In other words, cartel members baulk at participating in honest competition and in acknowledging the customers’ decisions on goods and services. Consequently cartel laws are primarily consumer protection laws.