The Competition Council has fined four construction companies for rigging bids in nearly 60 public tenders held between 2018 and 2020. The amount of the sanctions totals 4.7 million lei, IPN reports.
Investigations revealed that the firms illegally collaborated to influence the results of the tenders by passing information about their bids to a single person. This person, being the head of one of the firms, drew up the tender documents for all the companies, thus eliminating real competition.
The Competition Council found that this practice falls into the category of hard-core cartels, considered among the most serious violations of competition law, as it affects the fairness of tenders and distorts the market.
According to the published data, the companies concerned are "APS Service Grup" SRL, "Moncomtex" SRL, "Sud-Terra" SRL and "Zagorlar" SRL, which are active in building construction and road infrastructure. The detailed decision on the case will be published on the Competition Council's website.
