33 complaints of alleged criminal price fixing or cartel behaviour

The Competition Authority received 33 complaints of alleged criminal price-fixing or cartel behaviour in Ireland last year.

A number of these complaints related to the behaviour of trade associations and professional representative bodies who the Competition Authority said “appeared to be co-ordinating the commercial conduct of their members”.

There are four on-going cases that the competition authority will not comment on, as they may lead to a future court cases.

“Given that some of our investigations involve potentially serious infringements of competition law and the possibility that some may result in criminal trials at a future date, it is inappropriate for us to comment publicly on investigations,” the annual report of the Competition Authority said.

Two of the cases the authority is currently investigating involve allegations of anti-competitive activities in the liquid milk market and the concrete and cement industries.

The investigation into the concrete and cement price-fixing focuses on a number firms in the west of Ireland colluded to fix their prices.

Not all cases brought to the attention of the CompetitionAuthority result in a criminal investigation. Both RTÉ and the Marine Transport Service gave legally binding commitments to the Competition Authority not to abuse their dominant market position.

Marine Transport Service gave commitments to ensure effective competition between shipping agents in Cork harbour.

RTÉ gave commitments to amend the way they sell advertising to address concerns the Competition Authority had.

RTÉ had operated a scheme that granted individual advertisers a discount depending on the percentage of each advertiser’s total television advertising budget committed to RTÉ.