What is the term cartel in business?

Cartel can be termed as a mutual agreement between two parties or firms to attract customers by making decisions such as same pricing for the same products of different companies. It is a agreement among two or more Firms in the same industry to co-operate in fixing Prices and carving up the market and restricting the amount of Output they produce. It is particularly common when there is an oligopoly. The aim of such collusion is to increase Profits by reducing competition.
In some countries this is prohibited and it is analysed by watchdogs .