Office Fines Major Cartel in Railway Construction Sector More Than CZK 150 million
2025-07-02
By its first-instance decision, the Office for the Protection of Competition has imposed fines totalling CZK 157,693,000 on six undertakings for a series of cartel agreements related to public contracts for the repair, modification, or modernization of signalling and safety facilities at specific railway stations and railway crossings.
The parties to the proceedings applied for a settlement procedure and admitted to the anticompetitive conduct, thereby receiving a 20% fine reduction and avoiding a ban on performing public contracts. Two undertakings filed an appeal against the fine imposed; therefore, this part of the decision is not yet final.
The Office classified the conduct of undertakings ATE, s. r. o., AŽD Praha s.r.o., EPLcond a.s., MONZAS, a.s., První SaZ Plzeň a.s. and STARMON s.r.o. as prohibited bid rigging agreements, including market-sharing and price-fixing agreements aimed at distorting competition. These agreements were mainly bilateral and involved submitting a cover (less advantageous) bid for a contract to prevent its cancellation. The agreements affected a total of 26 public contracts with a combined value exceeding CZK 850 million, awarded by Správa železnic, a state organization, between 2015 and 2021 (inclusive). The frequency of participation of individual undertakings in these agreements varied.
The Office initiated the investigation based on findings gathered by the Supreme Audit Office regarding three contracts, which the Office subsequently verified independently. After conducting on-site inspections at the business premises of some parties to the proceedings, the Office expanded the number of the contracts concerned. In the course of the administrative proceedings, one party cooperated with the Office within the leniency program, and after fulfilling all the conditions set, its fine was significantly reduced. Two other parties to the proceedings also had their fines reduced due to submitting a competition compliance program and fulfilling the conditions established by the Office's soft law on a settlement procedure.
Final amounts of fines imposed on individual parties to the proceedings:
| ATE, s. r. o. | 13 048 000 CZK | |
| AŽD Praha s.r.o. | 52 537 000 CZK | |
| EPLcond a.s. | 22 770 000 CZK | |
| MONZAS, a.s. | 33 738 000 CZK | |
| První SaZ Plzeň a.s. | 30 162 000 CZK | |
| STARMON s.r.o. | 5 438 000 CZK |
The recently published decision on the case described above is not the first action conducted by the Office against cartels of railway crossing security suppliers. In previous years, the Office has already punished several undertakings in two related proceedings, in which final fines totalling CZK 46,106,000 were imposed.
Public Relations
25/124 - S0022/2022
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