The Luxembourg Competition Authority closes with a non-infringement decision a compliance and antitrust investigation in the market for professional services
In the Ordre des architects et des ingénieurs-conseils et Monsieur Carlo Frank case the Luxembourg Competition Authority (LCA) considered whether the Luxembourgish Association of Architects and Engineers (OAI) and a member of it put in place an anti-competitive price-fixing agreement. In June 2018 a customer of a Luxembourg-architect and member of the OAI, CF, filed a complaint with the LCA, reporting that CF invoiced him fees for professional services determined on the basis of the fee scale recommended by the OAI (the Fee Scale). That, in the view of the complainant, gave raise to two competition breaches: i) Non-compliance with the LCA’s commitment decision of 5 February 2014 by which the OAI committed to refrain from issuing recommended Fee Scale to be incorporated by its members into the service contracts concluded with their clients as basis to determine the fees to be paid by the clients. ii) A concerted practice by which the OAI and its members jointly determined the ...