Public and private organisations often rely upon a competitive tender process to buy what they need. When bidders prepare their offers honestly and independently, the tender outcomes ensure value for money. Bid rigging occurs when companies conspire to raise prices or lower the quality of their offers. Bid rigging is illegal under competition law in all OECD Members. In many of them, it is a criminal offence. It is particularly harmful in public procurement, as it affects public services, wastes public money and diminishes trust in the public sector.
In (2023[1]), the OECD Council at Ministerial level revised the Recommendation on Fighting Bid Rigging in Public Procurement [OECD-LEGAL-0396]. The Recommendation aims to promote effective competition in public procurement, reduce the risk of bid rigging, facilitate the detection of bid-rigging cartels and support the enforcement of competition law.
In line with instructions from the Council, the Competition Committee revised the Guidelines for Fighting Bid Rigging in Public Procurement in 2025, drawing on Competition Committee roundtables concerning cartels, enforcement cases and advocacy initiatives in OECD and non-OECD jurisdictions, and the Secretariat’s experience gained through projects on fighting bid rigging in public procurement.
The Guidelines aim to support procurement and competition authorities to prevent and detect bid rigging. They contain general, non-exhaustive principles that may be adapted to each procurement process. They include sections on bid-rigging forms and bid-rigging compensation mechanisms that cartels may use. The Guidelines explain the links between bid rigging and other unlawful conduct, and which supply and demand characteristics may facilitate collusion. Their main part is two checklists:
a Tender Design List, which details a series of measures to help plan and carry out procurement in a way that limits bid-rigging risks
a Bid-rigging Detection List, which sets forth red flags to help identify and report bid-rigging schemes.
The Guidelines were developed by the Working Party 3 on Co-operation and Enforcement. They were then discussed, approved and declassified by the OECD’s Competition Committee on 19 June 2025.
The Guidelines were prepared by Despina Pachnou, with support from Eduardo Mangada Real de Asúa and valuable comments from Ori Schwartz and Antonio Capobianco of the OECD Competition Division. The Guidelines benefitted from consultation with the OECD’s Public Governance Committee through its Working Party of Leading Practitioners in Public Procurement, and inputs from members of the OECD Infrastructure and Public Procurement Division. This document was prepared for publication by Erica Agostinho.