Confirmed the 23 million euros fine against the “Big Four” for bid rigging

The Italian State Council rejected the appeal and confirmed the 23 million euros sanction issued by the Italian antitrust authority to the so-called “Big Four” accounting firms, namely Deloitte , KPMG, Ernst & Young and PWC.

The Antitrust Authority had ascertained the existence of a horizontal and secret agreement, in violation of Article 101 of the TFEU, by means of which the main auditing and consulting firms belonging to the international networks Deloitte , KPMG, Ernst & Young and PWC had conditioned the outcome of the tender launched by CONSIP for the assignment of support and technical assistance services to Public Administrations. In particular, the Authority ascertained that the collusion had been put in place through a “chessboard” participation in the tender lots. Finally, the Authority imposed fines for a total of 23,693,216 euros, jointly condemning Consip with the companies that took part in the tender, including Ernst & Young Financial Business Advisors SpA, Deloitte & Consulting Srl, Kpmg Advisory SpA, on the ground that they belong to the same network.

After appealing to TAR Lazio, the decision of the Italian Authority became final after the State Council confirmed that:

1. the Authority has correctly qualified the agreement as “secret”, given that the evidential support, based on e-mail contacts that cannot be known externally and organizational matrices for dividing the lots during the tender, highlights lack of transparency and publicity of the agreement itself;

2. anti-competitive agreements may be qualified as very serious on the sole basis of their nature, without the need to prove the effects on the market;

3. the application of an entry fee for the most serious cases of anti-competitive practices is independent of the duration of the infringement and the effects of the established agreement.