Waste company Bingo’s chief had ‘significant fall from grace’ with cartel offences, court says

Waste management service Bingo and its former boss have received criminal convictions and collectively fined $30m while co-conspirator Aussie Skips and its chief were fined $3.5m.

Bingo’s former managing director Daniel Tartak has been banned from running a company for five years.

Waste management service Bingo and its former managing director and CEO, Daniel Tartak, have received criminal convictions and penalties – including a $30m fine – after admitting to price fixing and cartel offences.

Bingo Industries, Aussie Skips Bin Services and Aussie Skips Recycling (together, Aussie Skips) all received penalties in the Federal Court on Friday over a price-fixing arrangement for demolition waste services in 2019.

Bingo was fined $30m and Aussie Skips was fined $3.5m, after they fixed and increased prices with each other for the supply of skip bins and the provision of waste processing services for building and demolition waste in Sydney.

As well, Mr Tartak was fined $100,000, ordered to serve 400 hours of community service and has been banned from managing a corporation for five years.

Aussie Skips’ former CEO, Emmanuel Roussakis, was fined $75,000, ordered to serve 300 hours of community service and has also been banned from managing a corporation for five years.

Both were sentenced to 18 months in jail, but Federal Court judge Michael Wigney ordered the terms be served as intensive community corrections orders.

Justice Wigney noted early guilty pleas in his sentence, and said while Tartak had no prior convictions his “fall from grace has been significant”.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb welcomed the sentences.

“We are pleased to see the sentences to each of the former senior executives and also the levels of fines at corporate and individual levels,” she told The Weekend Australian.

“We think across the sanctions that were imposed (they) reflect how serious the misconduct was and its impact.

“Cartel conduct is the most serious contravention of our competition laws because it involves competitors agreeing not to compete and in this case, agreeing to fix prices for skips and our waste services instead of competing with each other in relation to them.”

Bingo’s fine of $30m is the second largest fine imposed for criminal cartel offences under the Competition and Consumer Act, the ACCC said.

Ms Cass-Gottlieb said the penalties should serve as an appropriate deterrent to prevent similar conduct in the future.

“This is a significant penalty. In addition, these are very senior executives, the former managing director and CEO … it does show that employees and executives at all levels of companies will be subject to intensive investigations by the ACCC where we get complaints from customers as we did here, when prices were increasing significantly,” she said.

In his judgment, Justice Wigney said Bingo’s conduct, through Mr Tartak, was deliberate.

“There could be little doubt that the offences committed by Bingo were very serious offences which warrant a condign sentence,” he said.

“The offences involved conduct which resulted in the stifling and distortion of price competition in the substantial and relatively lucrative markets for waste collections services and processing services in Sydney or a significant part thereof.”

Justice Wigney said the anti-competitive behaviour persisted for a period of just over three months and “only ceased because commercial pressures ultimately caused the participants to cheat on the arrangements”.

“The offending conduct was deliberate, covert and was carried out by Bingo’s most senior executive officer in circumstances where there was little or no corporate culture of compliance in respect of competition law,” he said.

“Bingo was the instigator of the cartel arrangements and the largest provider of collections services and processing services in the relevant markets.”