Everything Everywhere Daily The Phoebus Cartel
Nov 21, 2025
Dive into the intriguing world of the Phoebus Cartel, where a coalition of industrialists conspired to limit product longevity. Discover how early light bulbs could last over 2,500 hours, but the cartel standardized a mere 1,000 hours to ensure repeat sales. Learn about their secretive enforcement methods, patent wars, and the chilling effect on innovation. This tale of corporate greed not only shaped consumer products in the 20th century but also serves as a cautionary lesson in antitrust concerns.
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Global Meeting That Created Phoebus
- Major light bulb makers met in Geneva in 1924 and formed Phoebus SA to coordinate the industry.
- They created a legal cartel that aimed to manage patents, markets, and technical standards across countries.
The Centennial Bulb Example
- Early bulbs achieved extreme lifespans; the Centennial bulb has run since 1901 for over a million hours.
- That longevity showed the industry's technical ability to make very durable bulbs before the cartel intervened.
Standardized Lifespan As Market Control
- The cartel standardised bulb life at 1,000 hours, a sharp cut from prevailing 2,500-hour bulbs.
- They framed the change as standardisation while effectively engineering shorter-lived products for profit.
