Competition law

The fourth entry is la soumission concertée, and an English reader who takes the first noun at face value reads something close to concerted meekness. La soumission does carry that sense, much as « submission » does: la soumission à l’autorité is submission to authority, and se soumettre is to give in. But French handed the same noun a second and quite unrelated job in public procurement, and it is that one at work here. Une soumission is a tender, the offer a firm puts in for a contract. Soumissionner à un appel d’offres is to bid for one, déposer une soumission is to put a bid in, and le soumissionnaire is the bidder — so le soumissionnaire évincé is the firm that lost, not one that was made to submit. English never runs the two together: a firm submits a bid, and « submission » stays with the handing-in and with the meekness. The practice named on this list is « bid rigging », where the bidders settle beforehand whose turn it is and who will send in a losing cover bid.