The Office Revealed and Punished Another Cartel Agreement between Construction Companies

2024-05-09

The Office for the Protection of Competition imposed fines totalling CZK 7,442,000 on the construction companies B.H.S. BOHEMIA, a.s., SEŽEV facility s.r.o., COMMODUM, spol. s r.o. and Hroší stavby Morava a.s. for participation in cartel agreements concerning public procurement in construction sector. The decision has already become final, the parties to the proceedings have fulfilled the conditions for settlement and have not filed an appeal.

The above mentioned undertakings illegally colluded on their participation and bids in public contracts awarded by the Railway Administration in 2015, namely "Demolition works on buildings managed by the OŘ Brno" (B.H.S. BOHEMIA and SEŽEV facility), "Okrouhlice, RZZ building - repair of the building" (B.H.S. BOHEMIA and COMMODUM) and "Tišnov, RZZ building - repair of the outer shell" (B.H.S. BOHEMIA and Hroší stavby Morava). The members of the cartel then submitted their coordinated bids to the Contracting Authority, thereby acting in a concerted practise with the aim to distort competition.

The Office identified the indexation of the individual item prices in the bids and found, after taking evidence, that this indexation must have been the result of agreements between the parties to the proceedings.

When setting the fines, the Office based its decision on the value of the public contracts that were the subject of the prohibited agreement. The fine for the undertaking B.H.S. BOHEMIA was increased by 25 % and 20 % for its participation in all three agreements. For the other parties, the fines were increased to reach at least 0,5 % of the undertaking's total net turnover and to fulfil their punitive function. All the parties have complied with the conditions for settlement, for which their fines were reduced by 20 %. The undertakings B.H.S. BOHEMIA and Hroší stavby Morava also achieved a further reduction of the fine by introducing an effective compliance programme to prevent possible future infringements of competition law.

The fines for the cartel members are:

B.H.S. BOHEMIA, a.s. CZK 538,000

SEŽEV facility s.r.o. CZK 2,052,000

COMMODUM, spol. s r.o. CZK 1,761,000

Hroší stavby Morava a.s. CZK 3,091,000

Press Unit of the Office for the Protection of Competition

24/078 – S0570/2022

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The Office Revealed and Punished Another Cartel Agreement between Construction Companies

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