black market

Also known as illegal market, illicit market

market in which goods or services are traded illegally

AI overview

A black market is a system where people buy and sell goods or services in ways that break the law, often to avoid taxes, regulations, or government restrictions. It matters because it can affect prices in the legal economy, reduce government revenue, and sometimes involve dangerous or substandard products that wouldn't pass official safety checks.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

~33 min read

Encyclopedic overview

A black market in Shinbashi in 1946 Illegal street traders in Barcelona in 2015

A black market is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services whose production and distribution are prohibited or restricted by law, non-compliance with the rule constitutes a black-market trade since the transaction itself is illegal. Such transactions include the illegal drug trade, prostitution (where prohibited), illegal currency transactions, and human trafficking.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “black market” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

black market

Encyclopedic overview

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