An architecture firm has been fined nearly $1 million for attempting to rig a tender for a $250 million building project at Darwin’s Charles Darwin University by instructing rival firms not to bid for it.

ARM Architecture admitted to attempting to engage in “cartel conduct” when former managing director Tony Allen sent two emails to eight other architecture firms in September 2020, attempting to induce an arrangement or understanding that they refrain from bidding for the second stage of the project.