Competition Matters

In April of 2019, Marshall Holland, the owner of a Texas-based company that buys and sells used computers and computer parts, pleaded guilty in federal court for participating in a scheme to fix bids in online auctions set up and run by the Government Services Administration (“GSA”), the federal agency that manages federal properties and provides support services to federal government agencies.

Robert Yaptangco recently joined the Antitrust Section of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office as an Assistant Attorney General and began working as a speaker for the Partnership for Competitive Purchasing.

In the weeks and months following a natural disaster, public officials must address damage to school and university buildings, city offices, and county courthouses.  They must replace equipment and vehicles destroyed by the storm.  In some cases, very strong tornadoes can even damage sidewalks, parking lots, and other pavement. 

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office works hard to detect bid-rigging, price-fixing, and other anticompetitive acts by vendors.

When it works as it should, competitive bidding is a process where purchasers issue bids to vendors who proceed to assemble the best proposals possible to compete for the opportunity to provide specific products or services.

A foreclosure auction is a public sale of property triggered by the former property owner’s inability to pay off a mortgage and other debt attached to the foreclosed property.

While most vendors are fair competitors, price-fixing and bid-rigging schemes can and do happen. Watch for certain red flags to help determine if vendors may be colluding.

Colin Kelsey recently joined the Ohio Attorney General’s Antitrust Section as an investigator and began working as a speaker for the Partnership for Competitive Purchasing.

When a request for proposal is tailored to give an advantage to certain competitors and ensure their success, the competitive bidding process is corrupted.

A New York waste-hauling cartel exchanged texts about bid rigging, allocating customers, and fixing prices. The texts ultimately helped lead to criminal and civil penalties for the participants.