• The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection issued a decision regarding bid rigging.
• Entrepreneurs’ strategy involved putting bids in and retracting them.
• Poczta Polska was the injured institution.

According to the regulations, entrepreneurs entering a bid should prepare their offers on their own, regardless of any family ties whatsoever.

Affiliated entrepreneurs may participate in the same bid procedure, but only if they run independent businesses. They are not allowed to agree on their bids, explains Michał Holeksa, Vice President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

The most common form of rigging involves putting bids in and retracting them. If bids made by collusion participants are the most advantageous, then the winning bidder resigns from signing the contract so that the ordering party has no other option but to choose a higher bid made by other party to a deceitful agreement.

Decision – the Poczta Polska bid

The Office issued a decision regarding such actions undertaken by entities that are bound by family ties. This decision is about bid rigging during bids organized by Poczta Polska for subcontractors to provide courier and postal services on its behalf. Two entrepreneurs from Konin entered into a deceitful agreement, namely Aneta Kubiaczyk AK Trans and Kubiaczyk Jacek Przedsiębiorstwo Usługowe. The former made the highest bid, but it failed to complete the missing documentation, which meant it could not sign the contract. The Office’s investigation showed that the purpose of this action was to award the contract to the other entrepreneur. Therefore, UOKiK imposed fines on both colluding parties in the total amount of nearly PLN 13,000. Both companies have already paid fines to the state budget.

Do you suspect bid rigging? Let UOKiK know

The fine for using competition restricting practices may amount up to 10% of company’s turnover. We would like to remind you about our programme aimed at obtaining information from anonymous whistle-blowers, such as former and current employees of companies violating the law. If you know anything about practices restricting competition, please report them to UOKiK. Contact us anonymously at 22 55 60 500 or at the following e-mail address: sygnalista@uokik.gov.pl. All data on the whistle-blower programme can be found at konkurencja.uokik.gov.pl.

Additional information for the media:

UOKiK Press Office
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa, Poland
Phone +48 695 902 088, +48 22 55 60 246
E-mail: biuroprasowe@uokik.gov.pl
Twitter: @UOKiKgovPL