The Office Fined a Cartel of Logistics Companies and for the First Time Imposed a Ban on Public Procurement
"The Office is ready to use the penalty in the form of a ban on participation in public procurement also in other cases of cartel agreements related to public procurement if the undertakings do not use the leniency programme or do not cooperate with the Office within the framework of the settlement," said Kamil Nejezchleb, Vice-Chairman of the Office.
The undertakings EXPRES VAN s.r.o. (hereinafter referred to as EXPRES) and Lorenc Logistic, s.r.o. (hereinafter referred to as Lorenc), through mutual contacts, coordinated their participation and bids in connection with the public contracts of the Railway Administration entitled Transport of Commercial Packages 2014-2016 and Transport of Commercial Packages 2016-2018 in order the contract to be awarded to EXPRES. The cartel participants subsequently submitted the coordinated bids to the contracting authority. In its decision, the Office found that the participants to the cartel had operated with the aim of distorting competition in the above-mentioned tenders, and had indeed achieved this result. The unlawful conduct took place from 27 August 2014 to 29 August 2016. The Office detected this case on the basis of its own activities.
EXPRES was fined CZK 754,000 for the offence committed and was banned from public procurement for a period of two years from the date of the decision's legal force. On the other hand, Lorenc agreed to a settlement with the Office, for which it not only reduced the fine by 20% to CZK 2,100,000, but also avoided the imposition of a ban on the performance of public contract.
Press Unit of the Office
21/096 – S0149/2020
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