We saw above that Shahar testified – further to his words from the interrogation – that he asked the other participants in the online bidding not to lower their bid prices "too much" and that they – according to him – agreed to his request.
What does it mean not to lower the price "too much"? Up to what price? What exactly was said and agreed? Shachar's words on this matter were not sufficiently clear. In response to questions about that agreement, Shachar answered answers that raised questions and that could affect the weight of the matter.
Thus, when Shachar was asked in his interrogation whether he had agreed with the other participants on the price to which they would be reduced in the bids they submitted, he replied in the negative, explaining, "In any case, if they had lowered the prices more than they had lowered, they would have lost money and they would not have been able to realize the transaction" (P/557(5), paras. 1054-1056; See also his statement that he did not give the competitors the price he intended to offer, P/557(5), paras. 912-913, para. 921; See also Shachar's words in various places in his testimony, where he did not know how to explain what was meant not to go down too much, p. 3565, para. 19 - p. 3566, para. 4). This answer raises a difficulty. It is ostensibly inconsistent with making an arrangement to coordinate the prices of the bids at the online pricing stage. Subsequently, when he was asked in his interrogation the obvious question regarding the privileged arrangement and its contents: if a minimum price was not agreed upon by which the participants-competitors could reduce the bids they would submit, how would the competitors know at what prices to quote their bids and to what price they could go down? To this, Shachar responded: "In general, we agreed on the prices that each of them would submit at the written bidding stage" (P/557(5), paras. 1058-1059, see also paras. 893-895, paras. 914-916, where he referred to the fact that it is possible that in the conversations he asked the others to stick to the prices they submitted in writing at the BMI stage). This answer also raises a difficulty. It appears from it that no further and other coordination was made at the online pricing stage. This answer also makes no sense, since the maximum opening price set for the online pricing stage was lower than the bids submitted by the other competitors at the NCAA stage, so that the summary of the prices at the NCAA stage is no longer relevant in any case. This answer can reflect on the extent to which Shachar fully remembered the exchange in conversations that took place during the online pricing. Subsequently, Shachar was asked once again how the other participants knew how much they could go down in a way that would leave a profit margin, to which he replied: "At a certain point, Yossi [Schiffer] and I asked Haim [Shohat], Gilad and Ron [Wischnitzer] to stop lowering the price, and they stopped as we requested" (P/557/(5), paras. 1060-1063). From this version, it appears that the alleged summary was not made at the beginning of the online pricing or at the stage of the written pricing, but at a certain point in time during the online pricing, after the others had lowered prices, at which point they were asked by Shachar to stop doing so, and so they did. However, in addition to this version, we must take into account other things that Shachar said elsewhere in his interrogation. Shahar was asked if he and Schiffer had decided that Wee's bid would be $362,400 — the price Wee won in the online bidding — and he replied, "Not exactly. We wanted to serve at higher prices, but the competitors lowered the price and we were forced to lower the price as well" (P/557(5), paras. 924-926, later he reiterated that he spoke with the others during the pricing to ask that they not lower the price, paras. 927-929). This answer is ostensibly inconsistent with a prior summary of the bid prices to be submitted and can be consistent with a scenario whereby the other competitors did not agree to Shachar's requests not to lower prices (see also Shachar's words in his testimony, contrary to what was cited above, that Shochat did not agree to his request not to lower prices, p. 3579, paras. 8-28; that despite Shahar's requests, Shochat continued to lower prices and that he did not remember any summary at the online pricing stage and did not remember what Shochat answered when Shachar contacted him following Lowering prices, p. 3570, s. 6-9, p. 3568, s. 2-14, p. 3567, s. 19-21).