CADE’s General Superintendence investigates bid rigging in seven airports cafeterias’ bids

The General Superintendence of the Administrative Council for Economic Defense – CADE initiated, on 8 August, Administrative Proceeding 08700.007278/2015-17 to investigate alleged bid rigging to install cafeterias in the airports of São Paulo (Congonhas), Florianópolis, Recife, Campo Grande, Curitiba and Maceió. The bids were conducted by the Empresa Brasileira de Infraestrutura Aeroportuária – Infraero, which reported the alleged anticompetitive conduct to CADE.

 According to the Superintendence of Risk control and Compliance of Infraero, a state owned company, five companies and eight individuals coordinated to defraud the competitive bidding process involving seven on-site tenders carried out in recent years.

 Through the documents delivered to CADE, it was possible to identify strong evidence of sharing of commercially sensitive information and previous communication between the investigated parties, such as several documents with the same spelling mistake and layout. In addition, preliminary investigations revealed the use of a blocking strategy during the bidding process and a lack of competition in the price proposal presentation phases of the bids.

 After the initiation of the administrative proceeding, the parties will be notified in order to present their defenses. At the conclusion of the investigation, the General Superintendence will issue an opinion and forward the case to CADE’s Tribunal, responsible for issuing a final decision.