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Article: UK agency fines 103 contractors for bid rigging
- Article from:
- AP Worldstream
- Article date:
- September 22, 2009
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Britain's competition watchdog on Tuesday said it has imposed fines totaling 129.5 million pounds ($211 million) on 103 construction companies that it said colluded in bidding for contracts.
Eighty-six of the 103 companies were given lower penalties because they admitted their involvement in bid rigging, the Office of Fair Trading said.
The agency said it discovered the practice, also known as cover pricing, in bidding for 199 projects between 2000 and 2006.
In these cases, some contractors submitted inflated bids that were intended to let a competitor gain the contract. In 11 cases, the office said, the low bidder faced no competition at all because all the other bids ...