FAS exposed collusion at an auction for supplying medicinal drugs
On 27 June 2016, the Federal Antimonopoly Service found that “Bashtorg” Ltd., “Intermed+” Ltd. (1) and “Buzinessgroup” Ltd violated Clause 2 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.
FAS established that the companies reached an agreement (formed a cartel) to support prices at an electronic auction for supplying medical products for the needs of a medical institution: “426 Military Hospital” of the Ministry of Defence. At the auction the cartel participants reduced the initial (maximum) price of the government contract only by 1%. As a result of the auction, the government contract was signed with “Bashtorg” Ltd. for over 14 million RUB.
“The case was opened as part of our efforts to expose and suppress anticompetitive agreements in the field of supplying medicinal drugs and medical products for the state needs. The companies involved in collusion shall be held administratively liable”, explained the Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Andrey Tenishev.
Overall, since the beginning of 2015 FAS and its regional bodies have exposed signs of cartels in the course of more than 3000 electronic auctions for supplying medicinal drugs and medical products in 80 regions of Russia, opened more than 20 antimonopoly cases and issued 7 decisions.
Reference:
- In the course of the investigation, FAS received information from tax bodies that the legal entity was liquidated by merging with “Buzinessgroup” Ltd. Therefore, the latter was brought in the proceedings as a respondent.