EU investigates possible cartel practices

Greek and European authorities are investigating the possible extensive rigging of tenders in digital upgrading projects, mainly of the state, which are financed by the Recovery and Resilience Fund.

Ten companies are on the radar of the competent authorities, of which five are active in the IT sector, three telecommunications providers and two consultancies, with checks possibly involving an illegal horizontal partnership - commonly known as a "cartel" - to share tenders with pre-arrangements regarding the amount of offers.

On March 27 the Hellenic Competition Commission said it had carried out surprise checks on a large number of companies active in the IT and technology sectors as part of an ex officio investigation into possible horizontal collusion in falsifying public tenders (bid rigging). The companies that were audited are the following: Byte, Uni Systems,...