The National Commission for Markets and Competition will close tomorrow the public consultation process with which it undertakes a relevant reform in the processing and effectiveness of its resolutions against companies and individuals filed for distorting competition in the markets.

The activity of the CNMC in monitoring the distortion of competition is constant, with high sanctions both for companies and individuals who participate in what the body considers activities or agreements that violate the law and damage the functioning of the markets.

The cases range from gas stations to telecommunications through funeral homes or public works.

Last July, for example, the body chaired by Cani Fernández fined the main Spanish construction companies 203.6 million euros for altering public tenders for 25 years in public tenders for the construction and civil works of infrastructures.

In addition to the fine, the file determined the veto groups of the entity Acciona, Dragados, FCC, Ferrovial, OHL and Sacyr to contract with the Administration, which can represent a punishment for these companies much higher than the amount of the fines.

According to data from the Ministry of Finance, in 2020, 1.3 million contracts were entered into by the public sector for a volume of 71,000 million euros, almost double that of just two years before.

The execution of 170.

As in previous cases, the resolution was sent to the State Contracting Advisory Board to determine the scope and duration of the veto while the companies filed appeals before the National Court.

In this sense, the Board integrated in the Treasury indicates that, according to the Public Sector Contracts Law, the vetoes to companies to contract "will take effect from the date on which the sentence or administrative resolution became final in cases where there were pronounced pronouncement on the scope and duration of the ban

CNMC sources indicate that, until now, the Board has never established these criteria of scope and duration in the resolutions it has sent, so that companies and individuals sanctioned by the CNMC can continue hiring despite being filed.

Now, under the new criteria applied by the agency, the process will not go through the Treasury.

The resolutions in which the prohibition of contracting with the Public Administration is established will specify the scope and duration of the veto, so they will be firm from the moment they are approved and communicated.

Companies will continue to have the possibility of challenging the resolution in court, but they will no longer have the margin provided by the current procedure, in which the veto to contract with the administrations is determined at the proposal of the State Contracting Advisory Board .

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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