Construction Companies Are Offered UK Anti-Cartel Settlement
03/26/2007For the past two years, the UK antitrust regulator, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), has been carrying out a major cartel investigation concerning alleged bid rigging by companies in the construction sector. On 22 March, the OFT issued a statement that it would not be considering any further applications for leniency in this investigation. (Under the OFT's leniency programme, members of cartels may have their financial penalty reduced substantially or they may be able to avoid a penalty altogether.) The OFT stated that it would be writing to companies it already suspects to be part of the bid-rigging cartel, but which had not so far applied for leniency, to offer a "fast-track" settlement in exchange for admissions to cartel involvement and ancillary commitments relating to future conduct.
These types of direct settlement agreements, which are intended to be a form of plea-bargaining in cartel cases, have been endorsed by the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes. This approach is very new and is likely to be limited to larger cartel cases involving industry-wide conduct. Accordingly, it should not otherwise detract companies from considering immunity or leniency applications in EU states.
In this particular case, it should be noted that leniency applications are still possible for:
- Any matters outside the scope of its current investigation, including construction-related industries such as civil engineering or highway maintenance
- Matters relating to particularly serious forms of bid rigging that may be subject to UK criminal enquiry
- Cartel activities in the construction industry, other than bid rigging
