COBALT achieved a significant victory in Estonian competition law practice, as the Competition Authority revoked its precept regarding a joint bid made by eleven timber road transport companies.
According to the Competition Authority’s 2022 precept, such an extensive joint bid was harmful to competition, and the Competition Authority ordered the representative of the joint bidders to terminate their cooperation should the State Forest Centre (RMK) make such demand. As a result of a tender organised in 2018, a joint bid consisting of 11 undertakings won the majority of RMK’s orders, which, according to the Competition Authority, comprised the majority of the timber road transport companies in Estonia. The Competition Authority claimed that although the joint bid was approximately one quarter higher than the other bids, the transport volume offered by the other bidders was nevertheless so small that the joint bidders secured the majority of the contract volume for themselves.
The representative of the joint bidders challenged the precept in the administrative court. After several years of administrative court proceedings, the Competition Authority itself revoked the precept in autumn 2025.
This outcome confirms that it is possible to find strong defence arguments even for large joint bids covering the majority of the Estonian geographic market. Nevertheless, it should be noted that since no case law emerged from this matter, joint bids by competitors will likely continue to remain within the Competition Authority’s scope of interest. Therefore the potential competition law risks must always be carefully considered when making a joint bid.
COBALT acted on behalf of the representative of the joint bidders in the administrative court proceedings and both the representative of the joint bidders and all other joint bidders in the Competition Authority proceedings. The project was led by Partner Elo Tamm together with Partner Rauno Ligi. The team also included Managing Associate Mart Blöndal and Associate Kristo Pullerits.
