The Italian Competition Authority to investigate an alleged cartel among suppliers of the national rail incumbent

By a decision made on 5 February 2014 the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has opened an Article 101 TFEU investigation into bidding rig practices carried out by 12 suppliers of Trenitalia, the incumbent railway undertaking (Case I759). Interestingly, the ICA started the enquiry ex officio on the basis of information emerging from a criminal investigation. The ICA believed that the parties exchanged relevant information and coordinated their conducts with regard to a number of competitive tender procedures organized by Trenitalia in order to select suppliers of spare parts and maintenance services for its rolling stock. the ICA feared that the parties shared the relevant market for supply of goods and services tendered out by Trenitalia by deciding who would submit the winning bid for the tendered contracts. And the documents gathered by the ICA showed that the parties recorded all the contracts awarded to them by Trenitalia. According to the ICA, this recording system was likely to facilitate the market allocation pursued by the parties with the contested bid-rigging practices.

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