July 3 (SeeNews) - Romania's anti-trust body, the Competition Council, said on Monday that it fined three companies - Dataware Consulting, part of the IT&C group Bittnet, Kontron Services, and Tema Energy - a total 20.5 million lei ($4.5 million/4.1 million euro) for fixing a tender organised by the interior ministry.
An analysis by the regulator concluded that three companies coordinated their behavior during their participation in a public tender for the design and execution of a services hub, the Competition Council said in a press release.
The companies exchanged competitively sensitive information regarding their bidding intentions and coordinated their policies and strategies not to submit bids, with the aim of increasing the budget allocated by the ministry for the job.
Computer consultancy company Kontron Services received the highest fine, of some 16 million lei, while Dataware Consulting and Tema Energy were fined 2.3 million lei and 2.1 million lei, respectively.
(1 euro=4.95348 lei)