Breakin' the Asphalt Mafia: Millions Fined for Crooked Cartels in Road Construction
Unlawful road construction agreements: Federal Cartel Office imposes a hefty penalty totalling millions - Million-Dollar Penalty Levied by the Federal Cartel Office
Hey there! Here's the scoop on a recent bust by the Federal Cartel Office. Between 2016 and 2019, some shady business went down in road construction industries across various regions like Saxony, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Andreas Mundt, the big cheese at the Bonn office, had this to say: "Before tenders, it was like a secret society deciding who'd score the gig." In many instances, other companies hopped on the bandwagon with "cover bids," already knowing the minimum bid amount.
Mundt continued, "Competition is crucial for the public sector to bag goods and services at a fair price." Unfortunately, these underhanded cartel agreements can result in significant damage that virtually every citizen winds up paying for in the end.
In 2018 and 2019 alone, four companies in Saxony, Thuringia, and Saxony-Anhalt were caught dividing up clients, using code language to coordinate tender participation and cover bids.
Riding this same wave of crime, four companies in Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt (sometimes even Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) conspired in tenders between 2016 and 2019. One sneaky company managed to be a part of both schemes.
The orders ranged from basic road repairs to providing bitumen emulsion or gravel. The contract sizes typically fell between 40,000 and 200,000 euros.
Working alongside the Public Prosecutor's Office in Düsseldorf, the Federal Cartel Office swooped in for some raids in 2019. One company even decided to play ball within the leniency program.
- Federal Cartel Office
- Millions in Fines
- Rigged Road Construction Cartels
- Andreas Mundt
- Bonn
- Saxony-Anhalt
Just a heads-up: If you want specifics on regional fines or details, you'd probably need to dig into official reports or press releases from the Federal Cartel Office of Germany during that period. The rundown typically involves some anti-competitive practices like price-fixing, bid-rigging, or market allocation, all of which aren't cool according to German and EU competition law. Keep in mind that the Bundeskartellamt is usually hot on the trail of these sorts of scams. So next time you hit the road, drive easy, my friend!
- Andreas Mundt, the President of the Federal Cartel Office in Bonn, has stated that shady cartel agreements within the road construction industry, as observed in regions like Saxony, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, can lead to millions in fines.
- The illegal agreements often involved rigged tenders, cover bids, and code language to coordinate participated bids, which disrupt competition and lead to improperly inflated costs for the public sector.
- Consequently, businesses engaged in such practices could face fines that may stem from the general-news category and even fall under crime-and-justice, as they violate both German and EU competition law.
