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Business Ethics - bidding, competition, etc.
#2
Thank you for these very practical questions!
This post was sent to Rabbi Moshe Weiner in Israel, the author of "Sefer Sheva Mitzvot HaShem" (The Book of Seven Divine Commandments) and "The Divine Code." Here are the answers he returned:

1) Is it acceptable for a Noahide to take part in this process as either a vendor or sub-contractor?
2) Is it acceptable to try and find out your competitor's pricing levels on bid day, assuming they are doing the same thing?

Answer:
It seems that this is not a case of actual theft on the part of the bidders and their vendors. Furthermore, since it is the known and accepted nature of that business, in that particular location, it is permitted for those who decide to enter into that bidding process.

3) Is it acceptable to cut your price to the contractor after the 3:00 PM bid time?

Answer:
As long as no one firmly committed himself with a contract [or any legal procedure that one cannot retract] that he won't do this, then each bidder can retract his bid and offer a new one.

Note from the Director: this answer is not addressing the actions of people within the contracting company that is soliciting the bids. Here is one more point on this matter of bidding on contracts, that was provided by Rabbi Moshe Weiner (author of "The Divine Code"):

If the one calling for the bids makes a legally binding promise that the bids are supposed to be secret (i.e. that he won't share the amount of one bid with another bidder, so the second bidder can knowingly undercut the first), then he's not allowed to do that (even though it doesn't involve an actual theft). This also applies to employees who know that their boss or their company has made this binding promise. They are not allowed to subvert their company's contractual obligation by divulging bid amounts that are supposed to be secret during the bidding process, if the bids were submitted under a legally binding confidentiality agreement.
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RE: Business Ethics - bidding practices - by Director Michael - 12-15-2009, 02:23 AM

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