The U.S. Approach to Cartel Enforcement in Public Procurements

While bid rigging and other offenses relating to procurement fraud are nothing new in the history of the Antitrust Division’s criminal enforcement efforts, the Division’s prioritization of and organization regarding these offenses changed in late 2019. The Procurement Collusion Strike Force (“PCSF”) and procurement cases have become mainstays of the U.S. DOJ Antitrust Division’s criminal cartel enforcement efforts since that time. Through a combination of its durable design, favorable circumstances for its growth, and the Antitrust Division’s own diligence in building a network that spans the procurement landscape and prioritizes procurement cases, the PCSF is poised to play a prominent role in U.S. cartel enforcement and maintain the Division’s enforcement focus on public procurements in the coming years. This article analyzes the PCSF’s development and progress to date and assesses the initiative’s progress so far in its own “detect and deter” mission.

By Carsten Reichel^[1]

Public procurements long have been a focus of antitrust enforcement. The large amount of taxpayer dollars spent in public procurements, frequent opportunities for competitors to communicate through teaming agreements and subcontracting arrangements, iterative nature of many government procurement processes, and limited number of viable competitors due to the technical specificity of certain bids all combine to create opportunities for competitors to agree to rig bids. And