On 11 May, the Competition Council of Latvia (the CC) took a decision to impose a fine on four providers of security services – SIA “Bruks”, SIA RK “Nivios-LTD”, SIA “Puma” and SIA “Lat Jur Fin” – for lasting and systematic implementation of bid-rigging in public procurements. For this infringement of competition law the companies were imposed a fine in the total amount of 78 544 euros.
The CC initiated investigation of the case after receiving an application from VAS “Valsts nekustamie īpašumi”, where the company indicated to a possible correspondence in tenders of applicants in the public procurement organized by the company. The CC detected, that at least in the period from 2011 until 2016 four companies had coordinated their activities within in total eight procurements on ensuring of security services – in one procurement of VAS “Valsts nekustamie īpašumi”, one – SIA “Rīgas 1. slimnīca” (hospital), two procurements of Riga Technical University and four – of the University of Latvia.
During the investigation, the CC established, that SIA RK “Nivios-LTD”, SIA “Puma” and SIA “Lat Jur Fin” submitted tenders, which were prepared by SIA “Bruks”, or participated in development of tenders, sending their tenders to SIA “Bruks”. As a result of such coordinated activities, the customers did not receive competitive tenders and were misled concerning actual conditions of competition.
For distortion of competition through bid-rigging, the CC imposed the following fines: SIA “Bruks” – 29 250 euros, SIA RK “Nivios-LTD” – 39 676 euros, SIA “Puma” – 3 250 euros and SIA “Lat Jur Fin” – 6 368 euros.