cover pricing
n.— «The four-year investigation—one of the OFT’s biggest—centred on a practice known as cover pricing, in which construction firms secretly agreed the prices they would submit during a tender process. A firm that did not want to win the contract would submit a price that was much too high. In some cases, the eventual successful bidder would then reward them with a secret payment.» —“OFT accuses construction firms of price rigging” by Graeme Wearden, Mark Milner Guardian (United Kingdom) Apr. 17, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)