Telia and Gothnet convicted of collusive tendering

“Colluding prior to and during a public procurement process is a serious infringement of the competition rules that jeopardises the competition for the contract in question”, says the Competition Authority's Director-General Dan Sjöblom.

When the City of Gothenburg procured data communication services in 2009, Gothnet and Telia colluded to ensure that Telia would not submit a tender. This is despite the fact that Gothnet and Telia are major competitors within the same market. However, Gothnet submitted a tender, and won the contract. As part of the collusion, Telia became exclusive subcontractor to Gothnet.

The Swedish Competition Authority submitted a summons application in December 2014 and demanded that the companies pay penalties/administrative fines.

Gothnet and Telia have now been ordered by the Patent and Market Court to pay SEK 8 million each in penalties/administrative fines.

“It is good that the court confirms that Gothnet and Telia infringed the ban on anti-competitive collusion. It is also good that the court has ruled that the fine imposed be calculated on the basis of the optimum total contract value, i.e. the total value of the contract in question”, says Dan Sjöblom.

Gothnet is a municipal company owned by the City of Gothenburg and Telia is a listed company.