Canada’s Competition Bureau has issued a prohibition order against Sotheby’s and its Canadian subsidiary, following its “investigation into an international price-fixing conspiracy”. The order demands that the firm “refrain from offences against the Competition Act”—five years after Sotheby’s pleaded to guilty to commission-fixing in New York.

The 2001 trial in Manhattan ended with a fine of $45m for the firm and a sentence of one year in prison for Alfred Taubman, its majority owner.

According to the Canadian agency, while there was no evidence of commission-fixing in Canada in 1993-2000, investigators suspect that the auctioneers Toronto subsidiary could have told Canadian sellers to put their property up for auction in the US, where commission-fixing did occur.

The Canadian authorities ordered Sotheby’s to pay around $800,000 in investigation costs, to post the prohibition order on its website and implement compliance programmes.

Posted: 01|24|07 at 11:16 am. Filed under: Auction News.