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Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell this week announced a $2.4 million settlement with student transportation services company Beacon Mobility Corporation, which operates through subsidiaries, including Van Pool Transportation LLC and NRT Bus, Inc., (collectively “Beacon”), to resolve allegations that the company colluded to allocate contracts — raising prices — and made false statements regarding school bus transportation contracts in the City of Lynn and Towns of Dedham and Saugus. In addition to the $2.4 million monetary payment, the majority of which will be distributed to the affected municipalities, the settlement requires Beacon to maintain an antitrust compliance program for at least five years and to notify the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) of any acquisitions of other transportation companies for 10 years. Beacon must also cooperate with the AGO in future investigations and must notify the AGO of any efforts by a competitor to enter into or enforce any agreement to allocate contracts, fix prices, rig bids or share competitively sensitive information related to student transportation contracts in Massachusetts.
“When companies engage in unlawful collusion that increase costs for municipalities, it reduces their ability to fund other critical programs including our libraries, public safety agencies and schools,” Campbell said in a press release issued by her office this week.
“My office is committed to investigating and eliminating illegal anticompetitive agreements that harm our communities,” she said.
The AGO was unable to provide information on the specific amount of money that Saugus would receive. Each municipality will receive compensation from the settlement that reflects the estimation of the damages incurred by the municipality as a result of the collusion.
Beacon is a student transportation services company registered in Delaware that provides special education transportation services to school districts in Massachusetts through its subsidiaries, including Van Pool Transportation LLC and NRT Bus, Inc.
The AGO alleges that in 2022 Beacon colluded with another student transportation services company in the region to raise prices on school districts by allocating contracts for the transportation of special education students in Saugus, Lynn and Dedham. Beacon did so by agreeing not to compete with the other company for contracts in certain towns in exchange for not facing competition from that company in other municipalities. The AGO also alleges that Beacon made false claims for payment by concealing its collusion and signing a certificate of non-collusion in Lynn.
“This vendor’s corrupt exploitation of our district’s efforts to get some of our most vulnerable students to school is shameful,” Lynn Mayor Jared C. Nicholson said. “We very much appreciate the Attorney General and her team for holding them accountable and returning their ill-gotten gains back to our taxpayers.”
Dedham Town Manager Leon I. Goodwin noted that his community has struggled with unsustainable cost increases for many goods and services, especially since the pandemic. “In order for us to provide safe and reliable services to our residents, we must have trust in our vendors and contractors, and this includes fair and transparent pricing because profits cannot come before people,” Goodwin said. “It is reassuring to see the Attorney General’s Office investigate one of the root causes of this issue and hold a company liable for their illegal actions.”
This case was handled by Assistant Attorney General Katherine Krems and Division Chief Anthony Mariano of the AGO’s Antitrust Division.
If you are aware of anticompetitive agreements to fix prices, allocate markets, rig bids or share competitively sensitive information in restraint of trade, please reach out to the AGO’s Antitrust Division at an*******@**ss.gov or by calling 617-727-8400.
