According to a statement by the antitrust body, fines were applied as follows: Renania Trade SRL: RON2.511 million (EUR507.670); Avanti SRL: RON329.802 (EUR66.653); Tricomexim SRL: RON118.683 (EUR23.984); T&T Invest SRL: RON223.313 (EUR45.131); Mariad Serv SRL: RON108.004 (EUR21.826); Litind SRL: RON230.763 (EUR46.636); Dalgeco Confecții Textile SRL: RON311.529 (EUR62.959) and Lingemann Beschaffungssysteme SRL: RON1.05 million (EUR212.763).
The competition authority found, during the investigation, that the eight companies were coordinating their behavior on the market through an exchange of commercial sensitive information in order to increase their profit margins. Thus, the companies shared the clients, making joint strategies for approaching them and making sure that they won’t compete against each other.
“Basically, the mentioned companies split the commercialized products and coordinated the prices during the private tenders organized by some firms (customers) in order to allocate customers according to the strategy that was set up. This way, the clients were directed to tap the supply from the company they were assigned to, at the price charged by them. Thus, their possibility to choose to buy products from a different supplier, at a lower price, was being limited,” as per the statement.
Among the products and protective equipment targeted by anticompetitive agreements were apparel, footwear, gloves, surgical masks, air purifying devices and face shields.
Renania, Avanti, Dalgeco and T&T worked with the competition authority in the leniency program, having a significant contribution in investigating anticompetitive practices and thus benefiting from the reduction of fines. Moreover, Renania, Avanti, Dalgeco, T&T, Tricomexim and Litind admitted the anticompetitive agreements, which led to the reduction of fines.