The Japan Fair Trade Commission issued a cease and desist order to 11 companies, including NTT West, for repeated bids for bids for about 30,000 computers used in schools in Hiroshima Prefecture.
Eleven companies, including "NTT West Japan" headquartered in Osaka and "Otsuka Shokai" headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, have received cease and desist orders.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission conducted an investigation, including conducting on-site inspections at each company in October, and announced the results on the 6th.
According to the report, since 2016 at the latest, the 11 companies have been repeatedly colluding to decide which companies will win the bids for computers used by students and teachers at schools ordered by Hiroshima Prefecture and Hiroshima City. .
The bid-rigging was approved for a total of 58 bids to procure about 30,000 PCs and about 200 servers, and the total amount of orders was about 6.5 billion yen.
The Japan Fair Trade Commission issued a cease and desist order to 11 companies to prevent recurrence, and ordered 6 companies, including Otsuka Shokai, to pay a surcharge of approximately 57 million yen.
"NTT West Japan" was the first to voluntarily report to the Fair Trade Commission that it had engaged in collusion before the on-site inspection was conducted, and the surcharge was exempted.
Considering that support for the basic computer software "Windows 7" will end in 2020, almost all public schools in Hiroshima Prefecture and Hiroshima City have replaced their computers.
Masako Michishita, head of the Japan Fair Trade Commission's Chugoku branch, commented, "Amidst the growing importance of information education, it is extremely regrettable that bid rigging took place on the computers used by students. I would like to deal with this strictly," he said.
NTT West Japan Otsuka Corporation "Thorough measures to prevent recurrence"
▽NTT West commented, "We will deeply reflect on this and strive to comply with laws and regulations again, and will continue to thoroughly implement measures to prevent recurrence."
▽ Otsuka Corporation commented, "We take this order solemnly and seriously, and will continue to work to thoroughly comply with laws and regulations and prevent recurrence, and strive to restore trust."