This article analyses the incentives for a manager to engage in a cartel, by mobilizing the framework of the ‘economics of crime’. We apply a cost-benefit analysis, relating to the decision of starting and/or remaining in a cartel, at an individual level, including psychological and behavioural factors. It also examines the various solutions – both at company and public authority level – to limit individual incentives to engage in this type of practice, and the role of public policy, in the broad sense of the term, in preventing these behaviours.