The Italian Competition Authority to target a cartel in the cement industry in the region of Venice

By the decision of 7 May 2014 in the case I780 Mercato del Calcestruzzo in Veneto the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has opened an cartel investigation against seven producers and a consultancy firm. These firms were alleged to have entered into two anticompetitive agreements in the market for the production and sale of cement in the Region of Veneto, one in the coastal area of the province of Venice and the other in the alpine province of Belluno. Apparently, they parties agreed to coordinate their pricing policies and apportion market shares; they also put in practice mechanisms for the exchange of sensitive data and for monitoring the conducts of cartelists and punishing those who deviated from collusion. The role of the consultancy firms was to organize the information exchange.

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