price fixing

control of prices (often by government agencies)

Price fixing is an agreement between business competitors to sell the same product or service at the same price. In general, it is an agreement intended to ultimately push the price of a product as high as possible, leading to profits for all the sellers. Price-fixing can also involve any agreement to fix, peg, discount or stabilize prices. The principal feature is any agreement on price, whether express or implied. For the buyer, meanwhile, the practice results in a phenomenon similar to price gouging.
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Noun
1. control (by agreement among producers or by government) of the price of a commodity in interstate commerce
(hypernym) control
(classification) government, governing, governance, government activity

agreement or collusion between competitors to maintain certain fixed price levels to avoid competition. See Horizontal Price Fixing; Vertical Price Fixing.