The Competition Council of Latvia (the CC) is assessed as the third most active in bid-rigging detection among all jurisdictions in the European Economic Area (EEA), imposing fines in 11 bid-rigging cases in the period from 2016 to 2019 according to analysis carried out by the Policy and Regulatory Report (PaRR).
The analysis conducted by PaRR shows, that in all EEA member states in total 117 bid-rigging decisions have been adopted, imposing fines worth more than 800 million euros. In 2019, 53 bid-rigging cases are yet investigated, and in majority of them infringements are investigated in construction, transport and service sectors.
More than 30 bid-rigging cases are detected annually in all EEA member states. Every third decision is adopted concerning infringements in the construction sector, every fifth decision – concerning infringements in the sector of non-financial services, including security, interior design and waste management services, whereas every tenth bid-rigging decision issued in technology, media and telecommunication sector.
Most frequently – in two thirds of all cases – victims of bid-rigging are public entities, such as national or local governments, the military or the public health system.
If the CC finds potential signs of the infringement, but they are not repeated and have not affected a big share of the market and society, the authority uses alternative possibilities for prevention of the infringement, without formal initiation of the case. It serves as an innovative solution for fighting bid-rigging in Latvia. During the recent three years, the authority has replaced possible fines with warning procedures in 18 cases. If prohibited activities are repeated, the CC investigates it as infringement case.