1. Public procurement in Italy ICN Annual Conference Sidney, April 2015 11 Alessandra Tonazzi Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato

2. Fighting bid rigging is a priority In Italy, procurement contracts account for 10% of the gross national product Many public procurement agencies at national and local level Numerous formal investigations, €500 million fines 2

3. Detection Handbook on identifying and interpreting signals of potential bid-rigging (2013) –Based on OECD Guidelines –Addressed to all procurement agencies in Italy –Triggered numerous complaints on bid-rigging –9 formal proceedings ongoing at the end of 2014 3

4. Prevention Competition advocacy –28 out of the 55 opinions issued in 2014 concerned public procurement Cooperation –Memorandum of Understanding with the Anti-Corruption Authority with a view to foster information exchange and cooperation (2014) 4

5. Case examples 1 Banking sector –Inquiry: structural and behavioral factors leading to weak competition (poor information to customers and switching costs) –Complaint from a public administration on suspicious tenders –Assessment: single and continued agreement among the four banks aimed at sharing the market and avoiding competition –Use of evidence of information exchange and economic models 5

6. Case examples 2 Insurance sector –Inquiry: information deficit for customers and obstacles to customer mobility –Complaint: local health unit complained about anomalous tenders –Requests for information to other 8 local health units about tenders over the previous 10 years –Single and continued agreement among the four biggest insurance companies aimed at sharing 20 tenders along ten years 6