Competition watchdog raids 10 tech companies for possible bid rigging
Teams of Greece’s competition authority conducted unannounced inspections in the offices of a large number of IT and related service providers, including the country’s three telecommunications service providers, on Wednesday, as part of an investigation into possible bid rigging.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the Hellenic Competition Commission said it is examining whether there was a violation of Articles 1 of Law 3959/2011 and 101 of the Treaty for the Functioning of the European Union, that “prohibit anticompetitive agreements and decisions of associations of undertakings that prevent, restrict or distort competition, unilateral practices that constitute invitation to collude or future price announcements to competitors and the abuse of a dominant position.”
Unannounced inspections are a preliminary step in an investigation into suspected anticompetitive practices, the watchdog said.
Τhe tenders in question are mainly those launched by ministries (Justice, Education, Environment, Digital Governance and others) and concerns digital upgrading projects that are financed by the EU Recovery and Resilience Fund, Kathimerini understands.
According to information, the authority’s team raided five companies providing IT services and software (among them Byte, Uni Systems, Cosmos Business Systems), telecom companies Cosmote, Vodafone and Nova – which were inspected for the provision of equipment and not telecommunications services – as well as two consulting companies. Inspectors collected a large volume of files to be examined.
Digital transition is one of the most important pillars of the Recovery and Resilience Fund with 1.28 billion euros earmarked for projects relating to the digital transformation of the state. There is also a budget of 522 million euros for projects related to connectivity for citizens, businesses and the state.
