7th Dec 2016 09:55
LONDON (Alliance News) - The US Justice Department is investigating whether advertising agencies have been rigging bidding processes for commercial contracts in favour of their in-house production units over independent companies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday citing people familiar with the matter.
The Justice Department is investigating whether ad agencies are manipulating the bidding process, urging independent companies to inflate their prices so that contracts could be awarded to the agencies' own production and post-production outfits, the newspaper's sources said.
Rebecca Meiklejohn, a government antitrust attorney based in New York, has been interviewing ad industry executives on the subject over the past few months, the people said.
The newspaper said it isn't clear which agencies are being investigated, but it noted that large agencies such as WPP PLC and Publicis Groupe SA have in-house production and post-production divisions.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/justice-department-investigates-rigging-of-contracts-in-advertising-industry-1481046420
WPP shares were down 2.1% at 1,659.00 pence on Wednesday morning.
By Neil Thakrar; [email protected]; @NeilThakrar1
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