Competition Commission: Reduced fine for the company Mediterranean due to the dispute settlement process

The Competition Commission imposed a reduced fine on the company MESOGEIOS in the context of the dispute settlement process, after an investigation in a tender for a public infrastructure project

In particular, the Plenary Session of the Competition Commission (EA) accepted the relevant proposal for Settlement of the Dispute submitted by the company MESOGEIOS TECHNICAL COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE SOCIETY (“MESOGEIOS”), as the Commission notes in a relevant announcement.

As he points out, the Decision was issued during the above simplified procedure, following a relevant expression of interest by the company for its inclusion in the procedure and a consequent final statement of acceptance of the violation found.

EA imposed on the company MESOGEIOS a reduced fine due to the dispute settlement procedure for the execution of the established, based on the reasoning of the Decision, violation of article 1 of Law 3959/2011 and 101 TFEU, ie, amounting to € 4,954.

Dispute Settlement Procedure

The dispute settlement procedure concerns the cases where companies or associations of companies voluntarily and unreservedly admit their participation in a horizontal cartel, in violation of article 1 of Law 3959/2011 and / or article 101 TFEU, and facilitate, with the in this way, the procedure for establishing the infringement by the Competition Commission. In these cases a reduction of the fine by 15% is granted under certain conditions.

The purpose of the dispute settlement procedure is the simplification and acceleration of the administrative procedure for issuing decisions by the Competition Commission for violations of article 1 of Law 3959/2011 and / or article 101 TFEU, as well as the limitation of the number of appeals filed against decisions of the Commission before the Administrative Court of Appeal of Athens.

This enables the Commission to deal with more cases with its own resources and with less administrative burden, thus increasing the deterrent nature of its action and, at the same time, raising citizens’ interest in effective and timely punishment. of offenders.

Record

In the context of an ex-officio investigation conducted by the Directorate-General for Competition (GDA) in tenders for tenders for public infrastructure projects, in order to determine whether the conditions for the application of the provisions of article 1 of Law 3959/2011 and article 101 of the TFEU were met, the GDA conducted on 25.01.2017 on-site inspection of the companies PYTHAGORAS SA and ATHONIKI TECHNIKI SA during which a document was identified from which the involvement of the company MESOGEIOS SA emerges. in a horizontal partnership during the auction of the project “Gournes-Hersonissos”.

The project was part of a wider cartel partnership between a group of 7th class contractors and 6th class companies for the distribution of public works tenders on the grounds that one group would enter a tender against the other, as opposed to the promise that another team would in turn be relegated to the next competition. Relevant and the no. 642/2017 and 647/2017 decisions of EA.

Related Market

Considering that in the case of bid-rigging cases the main point of reference for the definition of the relevant product market is in fact the work affected by the cartel under investigation, the relevant product market for the present is the “Gournes” project. -Peninsula”. The relevant geographical market is the whole of the Greek territory.

Legal Assessment

The behavior of MESOGEIOS consists of an agreement / harmonized practice concluded / adopted before the submission of the financial bids for the distribution of the tender for the Gournes Hersonissos project, ie for the distribution of the market. Specifically, MEDITERRANEAN made a) an agreement / concerted practice (i) for the pre-determination of the bidder in the said tender, (ii) for the submission of a cover offer, in favor of the pre-agreed bidder, in order to maximize the chances, the pre-agreed (iii) to adopt a compensation procedure to ensure compliance with the agreement; and (b) to exchange sensitive commercial information between competitors.

Fine / Penalties

EA found that the company MESOGEIOS SA violated, as it accepted and according to what is stated in the reasoning of the decision, article 1 of Law 3959/2011, as in force, and article 101 TFEU, by participating in a prohibited horizontal cartel for rigging a tender and imposed a fine of € 4,954.

The fines were reduced by 15% under the Dispute Settlement Procedure for reasons of procedural efficiency.