[throwaway8451]

I think that I once heard that in Switzerland the second cheapest bidder is the one to get the contract, exactly to discourage someone aggressively underbidding all others. I could not verify that now though.

[blocked_again]

What is the right solution here from a game theory perspective?

[bhaak]

Own two companies that agressively underbid all others?

[xcambar]

That is deceptively simple. It might just work :D

[z77dj3kl]

Auction design is a very active research area and what the "right solution" is, is not so easy to figure out. This has huge applications in... adtech.