The National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) has sanctioned four companies and six executives for distributing tenders from the Ministry of Defense through two cartels.
On the one hand, the CNMC has fined the companies Comercial Hernando Moreno Cohemo SLU (Cohemo) with 1,067,944 euros; Star Defense Logistics & Engineering SL (SDLE), with 3,302,912 euros; and Grupo de Ingeniería, Reconstrucción y Recambios, JPG SA (JPG), with 1,304,220 euros, for distributing tenders related to the supply, maintenance and modernization of military vehicles between January 2016 and June 2021. On the other hand, the Competition has sanctioned Cohemo (450,000 euros) and Casli SA (100,000 euros) for manipulating a framework agreement to buy military containers between September 2019 and November 2021.
Competition indicates that “it has agreed to extend the initiation of said disciplinary file to 6 executives of some of these companies”: three executives from SDLE, another two from Cohemo and one executive from JPG. Those sanctioned are Aurelio Estrella Río (52,000 euros), Manuel Estrella Río (52,000 euros), Raúl Pérez Guerrero (42,000 euros), Sergio Hernando Moreno (52,000 euros and 8,000 euros), Óscar Agudo Sánchez (40,000 euros and 5,000 euros) and Antonio Molina Baltanás (34,000 euros).
The CNMC considers that “the prohibition of contracting” with the Public Administration is applicable to companies, as stated in the Public Sector Contracts regulations (LCSP). However, Competition positively values some of the regulatory compliance programs that the sanctioned companies have presented, and has asked them to review them within six months to decide whether to maintain the prohibition on them contracting with the public sector.
The companies distributed contracts, according to the CNMC. Specifically, they carried out non-competition agreements, issued coverage offers, withdrew or did not justify offers, and instrumentalized the temporary collaboration system between companies (UTE).
The anti-competitive agreements affected almost a hundred contracts, valued at 60 million euros: 13 framework agreements (AM), their corresponding 81 contracts (CBAM), and another 10 public contracts. These tenders were related to the maintenance of military vehicles (such as the Centauro, Leopard, Pizarro, BMR, VEC and RG-31) and camping equipment.
These types of anti-competitive agreements are prohibited in article 1 of Law 15/2007, on the Defense of Competition, as explained by the CNMC in a statement, and they represent a very serious infraction that can be sanctioned with up to 10% of the turnover of the companies.
