Competition Authority Imposes Landmark Fine Under Leniency Programme

The Commission for the Protection of Competition has published its first leniency decision in a cartel case, following a report by one of the cartel participants.

Konica Minolta distributors and dealers had engaged in collusive tendering in procurement procedures for acquiring office equipment and providing office machine repair and maintenance services in Serbia.

This is a landmark decision because the commission imposed a record cartel fine of €500,000 (7.55%, 6.18% and 3.21% of the annual turnovers of the undertakings concerned, respectively). Such uncharacteristically high fines are in line with the commission's previous practice of imposing severe penalties on bid-rigging cartel participants.