FAS EXPOSED SIGNS OF A NEW ROBOTIZED CARTEL

Yaroslavl OFAS opened a case upon elements of bid-rigging collusion that involved use of electronic auction robots

The antimonopoly body suspects that suppliers of expendables, reagents and diagnostic products - “Polymed” Ltd. and “Vertex” Trading House” Ltd. violated Clause 2 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

At the auctions the defendants used auction robots to file price bids. The robots were preprogrammed for non-competitive conduct at the auctions on behalf of the cartel members: setting the limits for reductions of the initial maximum contract price by 0.5-1%.

Preliminary investigation showed that the cartel covers 49 open electronic auctions for the total amount around 100 million RUB.

Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Andrey Tenishev, pointed out: “FAS has all necessary means to efficiently withstand “digital” cartels in spite of intensively changing economic reality. At the same time, our research demonstrates that any software used to implement anticompetitive agreements and leave many traces in the virtual world. FAS learned to find those traces and register them”.