No matter how unhappy he was, Mr. Li could only watch as the staff began to look for evidence and asked him about the situation.
All other staff members of the testing association have been gathered together, and their investigation procedures are complete.
But... Mr. Li was a little confused after learning about the situation. Their behavior was suspected of monopoly?
He really didn't think about it that much, and felt that the word monopoly was far away from his life.
In Mr. Li's opinion, if there is any monopoly, it should be the big Internet companies that have the potential to monopolize. He has just made an agreement with everyone to raise prices uniformly so that everyone can make some money together.
How could this be a monopoly?
While answering the questions from the regulatory authorities, Mr. Li's thoughts began to wander...
At the testing center he opened, staff members also came to visit.
Or, in other words, in the past few days, all the motor vehicle inspection centers in Jingzhou City have been investigated...
Again, the traffic control department may be their biological father, but as long as you are an enterprise or a company, market supervision will always be your godfather!
The owners of the major testing centers were a little confused. When they were investigated, they didn't know what was going on and felt that there was nothing wrong with them.
Some staff members even got the information they wanted directly. They all raised prices uniformly in March this year.
"You mean, that industry association has also passed a membership agreement requiring all of you members not to lower prices or reduce prices in disguised form?" A staff member in one of the testing centers said with wide eyes.
The boss sitting in front of him nodded. "Yes, they've formulated some kind of work plan, and they've even asked us members to pay a deposit. If anyone lowers the price, we won't get the deposit back."
"They have the final say, there's nothing we can do..."
Facts have proved that no matter how good Mr. Li's calculations are, there will always be people who are dissatisfied with their behavior, but there is nothing they can do because they are powerful and a few bosses control the entire industry association.
So when facing the investigators, he told them everything like a bamboo tube pouring beans.
There are still some smart people, because there are regulations that if an operator proactively reports important information such as monopoly agreements to the antitrust enforcement agency during an antitrust investigation, the penalty may be reduced or exempted at the discretion of the antitrust enforcement agency.
In fact, it is similar to the principle of leniency for those who confess and severity for those who resist.
The most important evidence was found on the mobile phone.
Since August last year, Mr. Li has been constantly speaking in their group, saying that we should raise prices uniformly.
The reason is that prices have been rising, but the annual inspection fees have not changed much.
Then several people discussed the price in the group, aiming to match the prices of major first-tier cities or even exceed their prices.
So there was the price increase incident in March, and at that time, a meeting was held to notify members.
It was premeditated and they took action to take advantage of regional industry characteristics and associations to implement unified price increases. This is a complete monopoly.
And the main thing is that this is of a particularly bad nature!
After all, this is a motor vehicle inspection, and as long as there is a car price, it must be inspected. Therefore, if monopoly behavior is implemented under such circumstances, the situation will be more serious than the general monopoly.
The Handong Provincial Market Supervision Bureau has now taken over the case completely because such a major regional case is no longer within the jurisdiction of the municipal bureau.
There are so many people and things involved...
As Mr. Zhang said before, the unified price increase has actually caused some discussion, among which heavy truck drivers feel the most deeply.
However, after all, the price increase of cars, which are closely related to ordinary people, is not high, so it did not cause much discussion.
That’s why it took until now to discover it.
So in this case, it must be made into a classic case!
Market supervision departments will also have corresponding classic cases, and if done well, they can also be promoted nationwide.
Let the whole country know that such similar behavior will be subject to antitrust investigation!
The whole incident caught Mr. Li off guard, like a storm. By the time he reacted, the investigation was basically over.
It takes time to identify monopolistic behavior and impose administrative penalties.
Among them, Mr. Li, the head of the industry association, was the first to be affected, and none of the testing agencies under his company could escape.
Now, including Mr. Li, several other bosses want to know one thing the most: who reported them?
These days, you can't just report it online and bring down an industry association like this. That's basically impossible.
A mature report requires real name and sufficient evidence!
But unfortunately, they couldn't get any information about the whistleblower.
Finally, one morning near New Year’s Day, industry associations and major testing centers received administrative penalty decisions.
"The association was fined 1.5 million yuan? No, why would the fine be so high? It's just an industry association and it doesn't make any profit!" Mr. Li stood in the office and yelled at the staff in front of him.
As for his Mingsheng Company, because it has more than a dozen testing centers under its umbrella, the fine was directly raised to six million...
No matter how high the company's profit margin is, this cut will cause serious damage.
But he didn't dare say this and could only cite the fine imposed by the testing association as an excuse.
The staff member put down the penalty decision and said, "The association's fine is based on the mandatory deposit required of members. You know the exact amount."
With so many members, if any one disagrees with the price increase, the deposit will be lost.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
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