FAS EXPOSED COLLUSION BETWEEN FORENSIC EQUIPMENT SUPPLIERS

Nine companies are guilty of collusion at auctions organized by the Ministry of Interior and Russian Federal Forensics Centre at the Ministry of Justice

On 15 January 2018, the Federal Antimonopoly Service found that “Krim-Market” Ltd.,  “Krim-Market.ru” Ltd., “AT & F” Ltd., “Technocrim” Ltd., “Krimservice” Ltd., “A-Tech” Ltd., “Expert KM” Ltd. (the “Krim-Market” Group), “East-European Managing Company” Ltd., “Interservice” Ltd. (“VEUK” Group) violated the antimonopoly law (Part 2 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”).

FAS established that the “Krim-Market” Group and the “VEUK” Group иconcluded an anticompetitive agreement in order to maintain prices at tenders organized bythe Ministry of Interior of the Russian Federation and Russian Federal Forensics Centre at the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation to supply forensic equipment. The initial maximum contract prices at all auctions was reduced by 1%.

The anticompetitive agreement resulted in imitating competition in the course of joint participation in the auction and refusing to take part in the auction to the benefit of other members of the agreement. After concluding the government contract, companies from the “Krim-Market” Group and “VEUK” Ltd. entered into a supply contract, the subject-matter of which fully matched the subject-mater of the government contract, at the same the contract price nearly halved.

Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovskiy commented the decision: “Inefficient use of budgetary funds due to the bid-rigging anticompetitive agreement has a threat not only for Russian economy but also for the national security”.