The Commission for Protection of Competition initiated proceedings against the market participants, KTG Solucije d.o.o. Subotica and Eco sense d.o.o. Subotica due to the reasonable assumption that by colluding in the public procurement procedures of different contracting authorities, they infringed competition in the sense of Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition.

Simultaneously with the initiation of the proceedings, the authorized officials of the Commission for Protection of Competition carried out a dawn raid at two locations and collected the relevant documentation for establishing the facts in this procedure.

The Commission discovered, through the Public Procurement Office, that the company KTG Solucije, as a bidder in certain public procurement procedures, was withdrawing its bids, which is why the contracting authorities were concluding contracts with the second-ranked bidder, the company Eco sense, but at higher prices compared to those offered by KTG Solucije. The subject matter of the disputed public procurement procedures were materials and means for maintaining the hygiene of facilities.

Apart from discovering about the withdrawal of bids, the Commission has, by analyzing the IP addresses (Internet Protocol addresses) from which the companies KTG Solucije d.o.o. and Eco sense d.o.o. were accessing the Public Procurement Portal in the said public procurement procedures, either to download the tender documents or to submit bids, noted that both companies were almost always accessing from identical IP addresses. The results of the analysis of the IP addresses indicate that both companies were accessing the Public Procurement Portal almost always from the devices which were connected through the same internet network, and possibly even from an identical device.

It was reasonably assumed that the companies KTG Solucije d.o.o. and Eco sense d.o.o., submitted bids, especially but not exclusively, in the analyzed public procurement procedures, contrary to the statements given in each individual public procurement procedure, i.e. it was reasonably assumed that the bids were not independently submitted, without the agreement with other bidders, which would constitute a competition infringement from Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition.

All persons who possess data, documents or other relevant information which may be significant for determining the facts in this case, are hereby invited to submit them to the Commission for Protection of Competition, at 25/IV Savska Street, Belgrade.