Section 109 Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018

Section 109 of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018 is about Bid-rigging. It is under Part XIV (Specific Offences Against Competition) of the Act.

(1) Subject to subsection (2), no two or more undertakings shall enter into an agreement whereby –
(a) one or more of them agree not to submit a bid in response to a call or request for bids or tenders; or

(b) as bidders or tenderers, they submit, in response to a call or request, bids or tenders that are arrived at by agreement between or among themselves.

(2) This section shall not apply in respect of an agreement that is entered into or a submission that is arrived at only by undertakings each of which, in respect of every one of the others, is an affiliate.

(3) An undertaking that violates any provision of this section commits an offence and where the undertaking is –

(a) a natural person, is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or to payment of a fine not exceeding N10,000,000.00 or to both fine and imprisonment;

(b) a body corporate, is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 10% of its turnover in the preceding business year; and
(c) a body corporate referred to in paragraph (b), each director of the body corporate is liable to be proceeded against and on conviction dealt with as specified in paragraph (a).