WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Canadian company was charged today with rigging bids for the sale of tactile tile to the Long Island Railroad, located in New York, the Department of Justice announced.

In a one-count felony charge, filed in U.S. District Court in Concord, New Hampshire, 1256384 Ontario Limited (Ontario Limited) from Oakville, Ontario, was charged with conspiring with unnamed co-conspirators to submit collusive, noncompetitive, and rigged bids for the sale of tactile tile from the spring of 1998 until the fall of 1998.

Tactile tile is a corrugated tile designed to warn visually impaired persons that they are approaching a dangerous area. It is usually sold to public transportation authorities or to contractors hired to perform construction for public transportation authorities and is typically installed along the edge of train platforms.

According to the charge, Ontario Limited and its co-conspirators carried out the bid-rigging scheme by discussing the price for the bid, agreeing on which corporate co-conspirator would be the low responsive bidder, and submitting a collusive, noncompetitive and rigged bid to the railroad.

This is the second case to be filed in an investigation of the tactile tile industry. On August 9, 2000, ADA Fabricators Inc. was also charged with participating in this conspiracy. ADA, after pleading guilty, was sentenced to pay a $48,000 fine.

The maximum penalty for a corporation convicted of violating the Sherman Act is a fine of $10 million. The fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime by the conspirators or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

The investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Division's New York Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Bedford, New Hampshire Division. The United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Hampshire assisted in the investigation.

Anyone with information concerning price fixing in the tactile tile industry or bid rigging or price fixing in other industries should contact the New York Office of the Antitrust Division at (212) 264-0383.

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