Ninety-five semiconductor design automation software public tenders faced coordinated bid-rigging over twenty years, leading to fines totaling 206 million won against nine businesses, according to the Fair Trade Commission.
The state antitrust regulator announced on November 13 that the infractions spanned from February 2005 to October of last year across procurements by bodies such as the Korea Electronics Technology Institute. The companies involved sought to prevent contract values from dropping if single-bidder auctions failed and converted into lower-cost private contracts.
Nine entities participated in the scheme: Dahan Tech Co., Celoco Co., Sore Solution Co., ITN Co., Eltech Co., ED&C Co., EDM Co., EDMFG, and sole proprietorship Comtec System. Among them, ED&C, EDM, and EDMFG operated under a single administrative umbrella.
The representative of ED&C directed the operations of three affiliated firms alongside a spouse and two children holding significant shares. Staff members shared tasks through a single management support department and shifted corporate affiliations to function as one unified business entity.
The participants executed two distinct types of collusion depending on the tender requirements. In cases involving only the three closely tied firms, the companies held identical software product lineups and shared identical client bases. They pre-selected the winning bidder among themselves while the others acted as designated decoy bidders.
When external businesses joined the bidding pool, a dominant supplier handling the required products would take charge. That primary firm designated itself as the winning bidder and distributed specific pricing instructions via electronic mail to the remaining participants.
The coordinated bidding strategy achieved success across ninety-one out of ninety-five targeted public procurement events. The cumulative contract value associated with the rigged bids reached approximately 6.2 billion won.
An official at the regulatory agency said that stricter enforcement actions will follow any future violations given recent substantial increases to the statutory minimum levels for antitrust fines.
