overcharge is an economic term used in legal discourse about price fixing violations. an overcharge is the difference between what a buyer or seller "actually" paid for a good purchased from a cartel and what the buyer or seller "would have" paid in the absence of a price-fixing cartel. the total amount of the overcharges paid by customers of a cartel is the major component of damages that can be recovered by plaintiffs in private antitrust suits. under u.s. federal antitrust law, buyers injured by cartel overcharges are entitled to triple the overcharges that they are able to prove in court.