Price Bureau Uncovered and Punished a Price-Fixing Cartel under the Leniency Program

The Price Bureau of Guangdong Province ("GDPB") recently published an article about an investigation in a price-fixing cartel among sea sand dredging companies on its official website ¹. According to the article, the price of sea sand in Guangdong province rose from around RMB20 per cubic meter to over RMB40 per cubic meter since 2009, which seriously affected the progress of many major infrastructure projects of the State. This unusual trend attracted the attention of the government of Guangdong province. In order to find out the reason behind the price increase, GDPB initiated an investigation in February 2012 under the guidance of the Price Supervision and Anti-monopoly Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC").