Section 47 — Competition Act: Definition of bid-rigging

In this section, bid-rigging means an agreement or arrangement between or among two or more persons whereby one or more of those persons agrees or undertakes not to submit a bid or tender in response to a call or request for bids or tenders, or agrees or undertakes to withdraw a bid or tender submitted in response to such a call or request, or the submission, in response to a call or request for bids or tenders, of bids or tenders that are arrived at by agreement or arrangement between or among two or more bidders or tenderers, where the agreement or arrangement is not made known to the person calling for or requesting the bids or tenders at or before the time when any bid or tender is submitted or withdrawn, as the case may be, by any person who is a party to the agreement or arrangement. Every person who is a party to bid-rigging is guilty of an indictable offence and liable on conviction to a fine in the discretion of the court or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years, or to both. This section does not apply to an agreement or arrangement that is entered into or a submission that is arrived at only by parties each of which is, in respect of every one of the others, an affiliate; or an agreement or arrangement that is an arrangement , as defined in section 53.7 of the Canada Transportation Act , or a submission that is arrived at under that arrangement, that has been authorized by the Minister of Transport under subsection 53.73(8) of that Act and for which the authorization has not been revoked, if the agreement, arrangement or submission is directly related to, and reasonably necessary for giving effect to, the objective of the arrangement.