Danmark A/S and GVCO A/S could have submitted independent bids for several lots of the same tender for road marking services. In effect, the joint bidding among the two companies constituted an anticompetitive agreement between competitors. The judgement is one of several in the Nordics the last couple of years concerning joint bidding or other forms of tender collaboration.
These cases form part of a national trend of increased enforcement against joint bidding – and a strict approach to joint bidding as a “by object” restriction of competition. This article scrutinizes how to balance this strict national approach with the guidance on object restrictions in CJEU case law, as well as the Commission guidance on horizontal cooperation agreements and bid rigging.
The article also investigates whether there is a divide between the legal approach taken and the business context in which the joint bidding takes place.
Read the full analysis here.
Author: Svein Terje Tveit
Year: 2020
Title: “Joint bidding: a smelly looking fish or a rockpool goby? An update from the Nordics”
Publisher: European Competition Law Review
Contribution to the European Competition Law Review
Partner Svein Terje Tveit has contributed with an analysis of joint bidding - a highly contentious area of competition law in the EU/EEA Member States’ competition law jurisprudence.
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