COMMENT

摘要

The persistent problem of price fixing reared its ugly head in Europe once again in April when the UK's Office of Fair Trading alleged that 112 contractors had engaged in various anticompetitive practices. It never ceases to amaze me how widespread this is in the industry. Over the last few years we've reported on similar cases in various European countries including Austria, Finland, Slovakia, Sweden and the Netherlands, as well as in Japan. In addition to these, our news pages have covered cases where the European Commission has levied massive fines against companies supplying products like bitumen, concrete, plasterboard and elevators to the industry, where cartels have been in place across several European countries. It seems new leniency rules - arrangements where companies can get reduced or zero fines if they come forward and admit the existence of cartels - are part of the reason for the increased number of prosecutions. This is good news. It indicates the industry is cleaning up its act and ridding itself of illegal practices that defraud clients. Leniency rules played a big part in the recent UK case, with just under 70% of the companies named applying for reduced fines in return for their co-operation. Depressingly though, this also gives an indication of the industry's level of guilt. Another area the OFT's case highlights is the illegality of 'cover pricing'. Rather unhelpfully the OFT uses this catchall to describe three separate practices. Cover pricing at its most innocent is what contractors do when they are too busy to take on a job. Not wishing to fall out of favour for future work they submit a bid that is too high to win the tender. Although this is illegal under UK competition law, it is questionable whether it actually distorts competition.