Galicia’s regional government is mounting a legal effort to recover public money lost to the so-called “cartel de los pañales.” For nearly two decades, adult incontinence products were sold to the health service at inflated prices. The Xunta is seeking experienced lawyers to take on eight companies already found guilty of illegal price-fixing.
The Servizo Galego de Saúde (Sergas) has opened a public tender for law firms with at least ten years of experience in competition law. The contract, worth more than €6 million before tax, will go to the team that can recover excess payments for absorbent briefs purchased between 1996 and 2014. The amount to be claimed is still unknown. A forensic audit will determine how much was overpaid.
The Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) confirmed that the cartel operated from December 1996 to January 2014 and imposed a €128.8 million fine in 2016. The legal action follows a 2016 CNMC ruling that fined eight manufacturers and importers, as well as the Federación Española de Empresas de Tecnología Sanitaria (Fenin) and two individuals, a total of €128 million for colluding to fix prices. The CNMC found that the cartel’s coordinated pricing for adult absorbent products was about double the prices achievable through open public tenders.
Galicia is not the only region taking action. Fourteen autonomous communities are preparing or have already filed claims, together seeking around €1.75 billion in damages from the companies involved. The process is complicated by the lack of digitized records and the need for specialized auditors and expert witnesses to reconstruct years of procurement data.
Sergas reports that from 2004 to 2014, at least €140.8 million was spent on products supplied by cartel members. For the period starting in 1996, the estimated total rises to €153 million, though the breakdown by company remains unclear. Galician press reports clarify that the €153 million figure represents total procurement during the cartel period, not the damages to be claimed. Experts and auditors will calculate final compensation based on the overpayment above competitive prices. The government says precise figures will be available only after expert analysis, which is part of the current legal contract.
To support its case, Sergas asked economists from the Universidade de Santiago (USC) to estimate the financial damage. Their early findings suggest manipulated prices may have cost Galicia around €50 million, depending on how long and how widely the fraud occurred.
The legal push comes as regional authorities across Spain face growing pressure to recover public money lost to corporate wrongdoing. The scale of the “cartel de los pañales” scandal is comparable to other recent crises in Galicia, including the cross-border water contamination reported in a previous investigation.
The deadline for legal bids is October 8. The Xunta is counting on experienced lawyers and forensic accountants to make the convicted companies pay. The case highlights the vulnerability of public procurement to cartel behavior and the need for stronger oversight. A successful recovery could offer a model for other regions.
