UK building companies fined UK£129.5m
Some of the UK’s leading building companies have been handed big fines by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for rigging bids for contracts.
The OFT has fined a total of 103 firms UK£129.5m for colluding with competitors on building contracts.
It said the firms colluded among themselves during the bidding process, leading to customers, such as local authorities, having to pay too much.
The ruling comes at the end of a five-year investigation by the OFT.
The fines were largely for the practice known as "cover pricing".
This is where building firms submit quotes for jobs that are not actually priced to win the contract, so the client gets a misleading idea about the real extent of competition.
The process will often involve builders disclosing to one another what price they intend to quote.
Source: BBC News
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