Forms of Business Combinations:Form # 1. Associations:These are voluntary organizations of traders and businessmen formed to protect and promote their common interests through collective efforts. They act as self- regulators of trading policies and practices. Associations are of two categories:Trade Association; andChambers of Commerce. A. Trade Associations: Trade Association may be defined as a voluntary organization for mutual protection or advantage of independent enterprises producing or distributing similar goods or services. B. Chamber of Commerce: A Chamber of Commerce is an association of merchants, financiers, manufacturers, and others engaged in business in a particular locality or region for promoting the general commercial interests of all the members. Form # 2. Federations:Federation means an association of firms engaged in the same business with a formalized agreement to follow certain policies in common so as to reduce the intensity of wasteful competition in the respective business line. It is, in other words, an alliance of competing firms into a federal framework. Federations are of two types:Pools andCartels. A. Pools: Pool is a horizontal type of combination intended to regulate the market price by the collective agreement on factors that influence the price. One of the important characteristics of Pool is the collective regulation of output or market or centralized disbursement of income or profits. B. Cartel: A cartel is an association of independent firms agreeing amongst themselves to regulate their output, divide the market, centralize the sales and determine common pricing policies that would be of maximum benefit to all the members. Therefore, a Pool is a form of combination that involves a certain degree of control over supply of goods in the market.