An investigation by the anti-trust body found that 25 companies in the Auto Italia Impex car service network coordinated to fix or standardise labour rates, spare parts prices, and other commercial terms in their dealings with certain insurance companies, eliminating competition between themselves, the Competition Council said in a statement on Monday.
The anti-competitive agreement was consolidated by the involvement of insurance companies Gothaer Asigurari-Reasigurari, currently Allianz-Tiriac Unit Asigurari, and Uniqa Asigurari, which supported the coordination of the repairers’ commercial practices.
The two insurers were sanctioned with fines of 6.7 million lei, with the remaining amount representing the fines imposed on the car repairers who took part in the agreement.
The investigation was launched after a leniency application filed by one of the companies, which received immunity from fines for cooperating with the competition authority. All of the 27 sanctioned companies admitted their wrongdoing and therefore received reduced fines.
Source: seenews.com
