PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched Federal Court proceedings against technology company Swift Networks for alleged bid rigging and price fixing when tendering to supply equipment and services to five Pilbara mining village sites.

The ACCC alleges that on five occasions in 2019, Swift made an agreement with competitor DXC Connect and DXC Technology Australia to rig bids and fix prices for the supply of technology infrastructure at mining camps in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

Technology infrastructure includes IT, communications, and audio-visual entertainment infrastructure and associated services for providing Internet and media services such as free-to-air or subscription television to mining villages

The tenders were for projects located at mining major Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri, West Angelas and Yandicoogina, Western Turner Syncline, and Peninsula Palms sites, and at iron-ore miner Fortescue Metals’ Japal Village Iron Bridge site. For these five projects, it is alleged Swift and DXC agreed that one of them would submit a higher price than the other in response to a request for bids.

The ACCC said in a statement at the end of last week that since late 2017, Swift and DXC sometimes engaged each other as subcontractors for projects involving the supply of Technology Instructure to mining sites in the Pilbara. However, in the case of the five projects, the ACCC alleges Swift and DXC acted beyond the scope of any subcontracting relationship.

“Bid rigging and price fixing drives up prices for businesses and harms the economy, which is why cartel conduct is a serious breach of our competition laws,” ACCC commissioner Liza Carver said.

“This case is a reminder to all businesses, large or small, that they must exercise caution when they are dealing with competitors to ensure that these discussions do not lead to anti-competitive arrangements, including cartel conduct.”

Swift said in a statement to shareholders that the company took competition law seriously, and had policies and codes of conduct in place, which applied to all employees.

The company pointed out that the allegations pertained to two former Swift employees, but that the ACCC did not allege any involvement by Swift’s senior management.