UK FAIR TRADING OFFICE FINES CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY OVER COLLUSION
September 1st, 2009
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UK'S construction industry has protested after 103 companies in England were fined GBPounds 129.5 million by Britain's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for illegal collusion when securing building contracts. The OFT acted over so-called 'cover pricing' where contractors uninterested in a job overbid for a tender, allowing another firm to secure work with an inflated price. By giving "a misleading impression to clients as to the real extent of competition", such pricing "makes it less likely that other potentially cheaper firms are ...
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