South Korea: Record fine issued for railway bid-rigging

South Korea’s competition authority has sanctioned major builders of a high-speed railway project for manipulating the bidding process for the contract, say reports.

The nation’s Fair Trade Commission fined 28 construction firms for alleged bid-rigging, a practice that the FTC said unfairly awarded the project to construct the Honam bullet-train railway. The project links the capitol, Seoul, to Mokpo.

According to reports, the fines of 435.5 billion won are the largest ever to hit the construction industry, and the second-largest ever overall.

The largest fine ever issued was 669 billion won issued to various LPG suppliers in 2010, say reports.

According to the FTC, construction companies colluded to predetermine the outcome of the bidding process for each section of the railway project to ensure that nearly all competing companies could win at least one section and the lowest possible bidding price. Authorities found that all major construction companies, including Hyundai and Samsung, participated in the bid-rigging.

Full content: Korea Herald

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