The Competition Tribunal ruled in favor of the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office’s case, and fined 9 bus firms and 4 “shared taxi” firms in the city of Osorno. These firms had colluded in November 2007 in order to raise the price of bus and “shared taxi” tickets coordinately, among other things.
The Tribunal ruled that Sociedad de Transportes Central Ltda., Transportes Camino Real Ltda., Sociedad de Transportes Frankol Ltda., Sociedad de Transportes Líneas Nueve Ltda., Transportes Las Golondrinas Ltda., Transportes Veinte Blanco Azul Ltda., Administradora Francke Ltda., and Sociedad de Transportes Centenario Ltda., infringed the Competition Act by (i) coordinately adjusting their prices in the period after November 27, 2007; (ii) forbidding independent adjustments to these prices by any firm individually, and agreeing on a common adjustment mechanism; (iii) limiting the global supply of passenger transport services in the city of Osorno; (iv) assigning market shares; and (v) limiting the possibility of competing by entrepreneurial innovation, and therefore limiting the possibility of raising the quality of the offered services.
The Competition Tribunal also ruled that Sociedad de Transportes Perla del Sur S.A., Sindicato de Trabajadores Independientes Taxis Colectivos Línea 17, 17-A, 18 de Osorno, Sindicato de Trabajadores Independientes Taxis Colectivos “Perla del Sur” and Sindicato de Trabajadores Independientes Taxis Colectivos de Osorno, also infringed the Competition Act by raising prices of public transportation in Osorno coordinately.
The Tribunal imposed lesser fines to those that should have been imposed for infringements of this nature, since the Regional Secretariat of Transport and Telecommunications of the Region (Región de los Lagos) facilitated the collusion between parties at the time.