Court: Restriction on Bidding Qualifications of Companies Colluding on Prices Is Justified

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] A court has ruled that the local government's decision to restrict a surveying specialist company's participation in bids for two years, after being caught colluding on prices with competitors, was justified.

On the 25th, according to the legal community, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 6 (Presiding Judge Seongyong Lee) ruled against the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by surveying specialist company A against the Seoul Metropolitan Government, seeking to cancel the restriction on bid participation.

The court stated, "Considering the public interest achieved by the bid participation restriction, the disadvantage suffered by company A is not so great, nor does it violate the principle of equality to the extent that the discretion was exceeded or abused."

The court pointed out, "The purpose of restricting bid participation qualifications is to exclude those who disrupt the order of bidding and contracting for a certain period, thereby preventing potential disadvantages to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, eradicating collusion, preventing price distortion, and maintaining the order of bidding and contracting. Such public interest demands cannot be taken lightly."

In 2018, Seoul restricted company A's bid participation qualifications for two years after confirming that it had colluded with competitors during the bidding process for a project to improve the accuracy of the Geographic Information System (GIS) database for the metropolitan waterworks.

Company A filed this lawsuit seeking cancellation of the restriction, arguing that despite gaining relatively little profit from the collusion, the two-year ban caused significant disadvantages as a small and medium-sized enterprise.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.