Several of the 25 contractors appealing against a combined £79m fine by the OFT for collusion on pricing have said they expect to get back “millions”, Building reported.
The upbeat message comes as the legal arguments draw to a close, ahead of next Friday’s closing date for written arguments, which follows the oral hearings in July.
A lawyer for one firm said: “It’s going very well for the contractors involved. I think they will all get some money back. Some of the big issues are going against the OFT because their arguments are paper thin.
“For example, the way they calculated the fines didn’t make any sense. The year that was used to set turnovers, which was used to calculate the value of the fine, was wrong. Also, some turnovers were global and some encompassed non-related activity. There are a huge number of weaknesses – the fines will be coming down.”
A senior manager at another firm said: “We believe they will be reduced, as the method used to calculate them was extremely questionable.”
A chief executive at a third firm said a refund was a “better than 50/50” chance, while another boss said it could be on the toss of a coin, but he expected “millions” back if successful.
In September last year, the OFT fined 103 contractors a total of £130m after a five year inquiry. Kier suffered the largest fine of £17.9m. Other firms punished were Interserve, which was fined £11.6m, Balfour Beatty (£5.2m) and Galliford Try (£8.3m).
Those appealing include Kier, Bowmer & Kirkland (£7.6m) and Durkan (£6.7m).
Meanwhile, in June a survey of more than 400 firms carried out by Europe Economics for the OFT found contractors believe cover pricing is as rife as it was two years ago.
According to the survey, 13% of respondents thought cover pricing was either “common” or “appears in most bids”, the same proportion as in 2008. About one third of contractors believe they have been disadvantaged by collusion among competitors.
The survey also found that most firms believed that more serious breaches, such as non-compete agreements and price fixing, sometimes occurred.
