GVH imposes more than 300 million forint fine on cartel in Hungary
EnglishThe Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) imposed a total of 337 million forints in fines on 10 companies for dividing public procurement tenders of one of the electricity suppliers, the competition authority informed MTI.
GVH was investigating the behaviour of companies bidding on public procurements of energy supplier E.ON in 2014 and 2016, for the replacement of meters, as well as for turning on and off energy meters.
The cartel colluded on tenders for services in the Székesfehérvár, Szolnok and Veszprém regions in 2014, and on those in the Nagykanizsa, Szolnok and Veszprém regions in 2016.
During the investigation, the competition authority uncovered an e-mail in which a company executive complained to a competitor about a certain price being very low: "they forgot to tell us about the minimum price", it was revealed in the GVH report.
The statement added that one of the companies admitted to bid rigging, and as a result, 35% of the fine imposed on that company was waived.
GVH pointed out that market division and price fixing are considered to be the most serious restrictions of competition and cause significant social damage.
