• President of UOKiK Tomasz Chróstny imposed penalties for bid rigging on seven entrepreneurs operating in, inter alia, waste collection sector.
• The consortium established by the companies was intended to curb competition in public orders organised by the association of municipalities of the Poznań agglomeration.
• Bid rigging is particularly harmful when it comes to public procurement, as they expose the general public to losses.

In justified cases, entrepreneurs may bid as a consortium. Under the law, entrepreneurs are allowed to enter a bid as part of a consortium. However, if a company can provide the services on its own or they can be provided by a smaller number of entities, entering a bid as a consortium may be considered as restrictive bid rigging practice.

This was the case for seven entrepreneurs: Remondis Sanitech Poznań, PreZero Dolny Śląsk, Przedsiębiorstwo Usług Komunalnych Artur Zys, EKO-TOM Turguła, ORDO Poznań, Przedsiębiorstwo Usług Komunalno-Transportowych Vikom and KDS. This consortium has participated in 15 tenders for the collection, transport and management of municipal waste in all sectors for the years 2018-2022 organised by the Inter-municipal Association “Waste Management of the Poznań Agglomeration”, covering the city of Poznań and eight surrounding municipalities. In most cases, a consortium of seven entrepreneurs won, and having been awarded the contract, the individual companies continued to operate independently in the area they had covered in previous years.

The antitrust investigation revealed that the consortium was set up to elude competition in tender procedures. Companies were able to bid for the same contracts separately or by forming partnerships with fewer partners.

- Seven entrepreneurs formed a consortium, which constituted bid rigging to avoid competing for contracts. Companies participated jointly in tenders, sharing the contract rather than competing for it. Reducing the number of bids in a tender reduces the level of competitive pressure and ultimately results in higher prices. Such a practice is unacceptable and constitutes a very serious breaching of the law – Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK, stresses.

For entering into a restrictive agreement in public procurement procedures, the President of UOKiK imposed a total penalty of: PLN 7,224,222.21:

• PLN 4,539,078.26 imposed on Remondis Sanitech Poznań
• PLN 1,363,499.98 imposed on PreZero Dolny Śląsk
• PLN 473,761.15 imposed on Przedsiębiorstwo Usług Komunalnych Artur Zys
• PLN 404,869.15 imposed on EKO-TOM Turguła
• PLN 112,331.47 imposed on ORDO Poznań
• PLN 176,643.82 imposed on Przedsiębiorstwo Usług Komunalno-Transportowych Vikom
• PLN 154,038.38 imposed on KDS 

The highest penalty was imposed on Remondis, the consortium leader and initiator of the competition breaching agreement. The decision is not final and may be appealed against to the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection.

- Bid rigging results in inefficient spending of money at many levels. Contracting Authorities and the State budget bear the losses, and we may all be hit by price increases. Therefore I call all persons who know that their company was involved in bid rigging to contact UOKiK under our whistleblower initiative. We guarantee full anonymity – says Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.

Do you wish to inform UOKiK about competition restricting practices? Visit konkurencja.uokik.gov.pl/sygnalista/ and fill out a simple form. The pan-European system we rely on ensure full anonymity, also towards the Office itself.

Entrepreneurs and managers interested in the leniency programme are encouraged to contact UOKiK. By phone, at: +48 22 55 60 555 UOKiK lawyers answer all questions concerning leniency applications, including anonymous ones.

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