TAMBOV OFAS FINED CARTEL MEMBERS

“Zvezda-2” Ltd. and “Stroi-Line” Ltd. are fined under Part 1 Article 14.32 of the Code on Administrative Violations (the version valid at the time of committing the violation) for bid-rigging: 27,422,240 Rub and 14,178,040 RUB accordingly.

Earlier Tambov OFAS investigated the antimonopoly case and found that “Zvezda-2” Ltd. and “Stroi-Line” Ltd. violated Clause 2 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” – concluding an anticompetitive agreement at auctions.

In 2014 the companies jointly took part in auctions, when they took turns refusing to compete to the benefit of the second participant of a potential cartel. Their joint participation in 14 electronic auctions for construction led to maintaining auction prices.

As a result, the contracts were concluded with only 0.5 % reduction of the initial (maximum) contract price.

Reference:

Under Part 1 Article 14.32 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations, if an economic entity concludes an agreement prohibited by the antimonopoly law of the Russian Federation  and  the agreement leads or can lead to increasing, reducing or maintaining auction prices, or when the auction organizers and (or) government customers conclude an agreement prohibited by Russian antimonopoly law with auction bidders, if the agreement is intended, or leads, or can lead to restricting competition and (or) creating preferential conditions for particular bidders, or participating in them are punishable by administrative fines upon legal entities from one tenth to one half of the initial costs of the auction subject but no more than one twenty fifths of the aggregate proceeds gained by the violator from selling all goods (works, services) and no less than 100,000 Rub.