---
title: "Bid Rigging Defense"
url: "https://legal.ge/en/service/crim-criminal-law-en/bid-rigging-defense-en"
field: "Criminal Law"
description: "Bid rigging in public procurement is punished up to four years, bribe-taking up to fifteen years. Advocate defence in tender cases. Legal.ge."
reviewed: "2026-07-09"
updated: "2026-10-14"
publisher: "legal.ge"
---

# Bid Rigging Defense

> Source: legal.ge, https://legal.ge/en/service/crim-criminal-law-en/bid-rigging-defense-en

## About this service

Criminal charges connected with public procurement in Georgia move within the orbit of three norms of the Criminal Code: a prior agreement between participants in a procurement, abuse of official authority by an official, and bribe-taking. This page is devoted to criminal defence; the detailed administrative regulation of procurement procedures is established by the Georgian Law on Public Procurement, whose content this page does not reproduce. In practice all three charges are often born in one and the same factual story — a suspicion that the outcome of a tender was predetermined, abuse of authority by the purchaser or an official, and a perceived „consultancy contract“ that grows into a bribe. The task of the defence is to stand separately on every link of that chain, because each charge has its own subject, its own elements and its own evidentiary base.

The full text is available on legal.ge after signing in: https://legal.ge/en/service/crim-criminal-law-en/bid-rigging-defense-en

### How is a prior agreement between tender participants punished?

A prior agreement or other deal between procurement participants made for the purpose of advantage or preference, which substantially violated the purchasing organisation's lawful interest, is punished by a fine, home arrest of six months to two years, or imprisonment of up to two years; committed repeatedly — by a fine or imprisonment of two to four years.

### When is a bribe considered large or especially large?

A large bribe is an amount above ten thousand GEL in money, securities, other property or property benefit; an especially large bribe is an amount above thirty thousand GEL. A large amount lowers the charge range to seven to eleven years, an especially large one to eleven to fifteen years of imprisonment.

### How do abuse of authority and bribe-taking differ?

Abuse is the use of authority for advantage — the sanction ranges from a fine to eight years with aggravating features; a bribe is the receipt or demand of an unlawful advantage and is punished directly by imprisonment of six to nine years without a fine option.

### When can a company be punished under these charges?

For the agreement norm a legal person is punished by deprivation of the right to carry out activity or liquidation together with a fine; this provision enters into force only on the first of January of two thousand thirty.