Cartels and Bid Rigging

It is now widely recognized that hard core cartels, or agreements among competitors to fix prices, restrict output, submit collusive tenders (so-called bid rigging) or share markets, are one of the most serious and harmful forms of anti-competitive conduct. As a result, countries are increasing their efforts to combat this conduct. In OECD countries and elsewhere in the world, prohibition against hard core cartels is now considered to be an indispensable part of a domestic competition law.

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Permanent URL: www.oecd.org/competition/cartels

What's new

The OECD Competition Committee adopts Guidelines for Fighting Bid Rigging in Public Procurement

12-Mar-2009

The Guidelines, which draw on the experience of more than 30 countries, provide the most comprehensive strategy available today for designing tenders to hinder bid rigging conspiracies and for uncovering existing conspiracies. They can be applied in a decentralised manner across government at both national and local levels and are simple enough for use by officials with no specialised economics or competition policy training. 

8th meeting of the Global Forum on Competition, 19-20 February 2009 - Paris, France

from 19-Feb-2009 to 20-Feb-2009

The 8th OECD Global Forum on Competition brought together senior competition officials from around the world to discuss the importance of competition and the role of competition authorities in the global economy, including: potential conflicts between competition policy and national champions; the impact of the informal economy on competitive markets; the balance between the public interest and competition policy in times of economic crisis; and how young competition agencies can best learn from more experienced colleagues.

Competition Law and Policy in El Salvador: Peer Review

30-Oct-2008

El Salvador’s first competition law took effect on 1 January 2006. Jointly published by OECD and the IDB, this report reviews competition laws and policies in El Salvador since that date and provides recommendations for further reforms. This report is also available in Spanish.

Competition in Bidding Markets

13-Jun-2007

Competition authorities become interested in auctions by a number of routes. In competition advocacy, they may advise other parts of government on how to design auctions in order to improve their efficiency—the degree of competition. They may evaluate mergers and agreements between firms that operate in auction markets. And they may be concerned with collusion and abuse of a dominant position in auctions.

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The 2005 report focuses on four topics, including progress in member countries and observer countries in fighting cartels; public awareness of the harm casued by cartels, effective sanctions against cartel conduct, in particular sanctions against individuals; and international cooperation in cartel cases

Hard Core Cartels: Third Report on the Implementation of the 1998 Recommendation