The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA) urged two Tampere‑based companies that provide high‑rise window‑cleaning services to pay attention to the requirements of competition law. According to information received by the FCCA, the companies appear to have allocated customers in contravention of the competition rules.
In an article in Aamulehti on 27 July 2025, a representative of a Tampere cleaning services company stated that they had agreed with a competitor that certain customers purchasing high‑rise window‑cleaning services belonged to that competitor. For this reason, the company has deliberately refrained from responding to requests for quotations submitted by those customers.
Each undertaking must independently determine its own conduct on the market. Agreements that aim to divide customers or market areas between competing undertakings are prohibited. Competing companies must not, directly or indirectly, contact one another to try to influence a competitor’s market behaviour or to disclose their own planned market conduct.
FCCA considers the cleaning companies’ alleged behaviour aimed at dividing customers to be problematic from a competition law perspective. In letters sent to the companies, the FCCA urged them to carry out a competition‑law self‑assessment of their business practices and to ensure that they comply with competition law.
Cartels are the most serious forms of restrictions of competition. They cause economic harm to customers, markets and society. Market‑sharing cartels distort competition, which leads to artificially higher prices for goods or services and reduces customers’ ability to choose.
In serious cases of competition restrictions, FCCA typically requests that the Market Court impose a penalty payment on the undertakings that participated in the conduct. However, the FCCA must prioritise its tasks and use its resources primarily for investigating and litigating restrictions with national economic significance. In this case, instead of investigating the matter in greater detail, the FCCA urged the parties by means of advisory letters to pay attention to compliance with competition law.
FCCA has closed its file on the matter. It can reopen the case if it receives new information giving reason to suspect a significant restriction of competition.