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The competition authority of Colombia (Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio) opened an investigation into its market of cement production for alleged violations of the national competition law. In particular, the competition authority suspected the existence of price coordination among the main players in the market in order to induce higher prices and, as a consequence, reduce competition in the market and abuse consumers.
One of the cement companies involved in this case retained Oxford Competition Economics to perform a series of econometric and statistical tests on the evolution of cement prices in Colombia to understand its dynamics. The main objective in this case was to discern whether the observed pattern of prices was the result of a natural market dynamic and the presence of exogenous shocks or, alternatively, whether the observed pattern was the consequence of collusive behavior.