On 15 June 2022, the court began hearing the high-profile case known as the "builders' cartel", in which the Competition Council imposed fines totalling more than 16 million euros on ten construction companies on suspicion of participating in prohibited agreements, including the splitting of procurements and the coordination of conditions for participation in tenders. The Competition Council is attempting to prove the existence of a cartel, or prohibited agreement in procurement, in the activities of the ten construction companies, largely based on its own assumptions about the text reflected in the transcripts of conversation recordings.

Contrary to the builders' cartel case, attempts by competing logging companies to coordinate price increases for services and terms of service provision have not triggered a similar level of enthusiasm and zeal from the Competition Council to investigate and establish infringements.

Attempting to agree on a price increase and threatening a boycott

The portal diena.lv understands that in March 2022, the association "Latvijas Mežizstrādātāju savienība" submitted an application to the Competition Council after discovering that several members of another forestry association, the "Latvijas Neatkarīgo Mežizstrādātāju Asociācija", who had participated in timber transport service tenders organised by a/s "Latvijas valsts meži", had allegedly conducted prohibited discussions regarding the setting of service prices and tariffs and exchanged information relating to pricing terms for the performance of procurement contracts. (...)