Cartel control in Ecuador: Independence between undertakings

Abstract

In its effort to correct the distortions to competition arising from public procurement procedures, the Superintendency of Economic Competition (“SCE”) has issued controversial resolutions that sustain the possibility that members of the same economic group can incur in anticompetitive agreements. Thus, according to the SCE, a single entity may collude with itself. The rationale of the SCE shown in the resolutions analyzed in this paper rests on the fact that the lack of independence between undertakings acting in public procurement procedures implies collusion, contrary to the cornerstone of cartel control developed by doctrine and international practice so far, i.e., that the existence of an agreement must necessarily involve two or more independent undertakings.