Telia is not guilty of collusive tendering

In December 2016, Telia and Gothnet were sanctioned by the Patent and Market Court to pay a total of SEK 16 million in penalties/administrative fines for coordinating their bids in a public procurement in Gothenburg. Gothnet accepted the judgement, while Telia chose to lodge an appeal with the Patent and Market Court of Appeal.

Telia is now exonerated from its obligation to pay administrative fines. The Court notes that the nature of the information provided by Telia to Gothnet that they would not be submitting a bid in the procurement is an attempt to limit competition. But considering the specific circumstances of the procurement in question, the information exchange does not constitute a breach of the Competition Act. The ruling was not unanimous however.

“I would of course have liked the court to adopt the same line as the Swedish Competition Authority. Now we have to analyse this judgement in view of future considerations and priorities,” says the Swedish Competition Authority’s Director General Rikard Jermsten.

This case was about a procurement of data communication services, which the City of Gothenburg carried out in 2009. The city had carried out a similar procurement a few years earlier, in which both Telia and the municipal company Gothnet had submitted tenders.