Finally, this agreement gives the two sides a firm basis for tackling safety problems when and where they arise through joint actions on a timely and effective basis.

The European Commission has fined 16 firms €290.71 million for operating a cartel in the plastic industrial bags market, in clear violation of EC Treaty rules which forbid cartels and other restrictive business practices (Article 81). In this instance competitors, with a view to increasing their profits, agreed amongst themselves on prices and sales quotas by geographical area, shared the orders of large customers, organised collusive bidding for invitations to tender and exchanged information on their sales volumes, to the detriment of competition, their customers and consumers.

The operation concerns the acquisition of control of Superdiplo by means of an agreed bid in the Madrid stock market.

1. For the purposes of this Framework Decision the offence of fraudulent or other unfair anti‑competitive conduct in relation to the award of public contracts shall have been committed if a person acting for an undertaking intentionally makes an offer based on an unlawful agreement or concerted practice between undertakings aimed at causing the contracting entity:

24. Bearing in mind also the Commission's guidelines in its communication entitled 'towards an urban agenda in the European Union' (COM(97)0197), calls for concerted action between local authorities, the regional and national institutions and the European Union in order to achieve better structuring which improves the quality of supply and makes it skilled and competitive in the global market;

Following a complaint from IDG the Commission objected to the original collusive bid on the grounds that the three most powerful producers of spirits in the EEC were infringing Article 85 of the Treaty by agreeing to take over a competitor and to establish a market sharing agreement which restricted competition.