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Article: Construction firms fined over 'bid-rigging'

Article from:
Belfast Telegraph
Article date:
September 22, 2009
Author:
Copyright

THE UK's competition watchdog today fined 103 construction firms a total of Pounds 129.5m after an investigation into illegal "bid- rigging".

Several major companies -- including Balfour Beatty and Carillion -- are among those listed by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as having colluded with competitors on building contracts.

The OFT said it had detected bid-rigging activities on projects across England worth more than Pounds 200m, including schools, hospitals and apartment blocks.

The watchdog also revealed it had found 199 tenders dating from 2000 to 2006 where bid-rigging took place. This was mostly in the form of so-called cover pricing, where one or more bidders arranges for ...

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