Section 188: Cartel offence
405.Subsections (1) to (6) define the offence. They provide that an individual will be liable to criminal prosecution if he dishonestly agrees with one or more other persons that two or more undertakings will engage in one or more of the prohibited cartel activities. The offence only applies in respect of horizontal agreements (i.e. agreements relating to products or services at the same level in the supply chain). The offence is committed irrespective of whether or not the agreement reached between the individuals is implemented by the undertakings, and irrespective of whether or not they have authority to act on behalf of the undertaking at the time of the agreement.
406.The prohibited activities are: price-fixing; limitation of production; market-sharing; and bid-rigging. These activities comprise the most serious forms of anti-competitive activity and as such are a sub-set of the practices for which undertakings may be pursued under the civil provisions of CA 1998.
407.Subsection (2) specifies the four categories of prohibited cartel activity: price-fixing, limitation of production or supply, the sharing of markets, and bid-rigging. Price-fixing is defined so as to include the direct or indirect fixing of prices. Examples of indirect price-fixing would be likely to include, but would not be restricted to, agreements about relative price levels or price ranges, rebates, discounts, price-change indices, transport charges or methods of quotation. Market-sharing is defined in terms of customers so as to include the sharing of an individual customer or customers.
408.Subsection (3) requires, in the case of price-fixing or limitation of production or supply, that for the offence to be committed the other party must reciprocally have intended that the agreement, if implemented according to the intentions of the parties, should result in one of these activities. This means that agreements are not criminal where the agreement only requires one party to fix prices or limit production or supply as defined. This further requirement does not apply in the case of market-sharing and bid-rigging where the activities are by definition reciprocal.
409.Subsections (5) and (6) provide a definition of the activities that constitute bid-rigging for the purposes of the criminal offence. Bid-rigging is the only one of the prohibited activities where for all practical purposes the carrying out of the activity described in this section will in itself invariably indicate a dishonest intention and amount to the commission of the offence. Arrangements of which the person requesting bids is aware are not subject to the criminal offence.
