AGCM

The Italian Competition Authority has opened a proceeding into Società Cooperativa Taxi Torino - the managing company of the radio taxi service in Turin - for a possible abuse of dominant position (in violation of Article 102 of the TFEU and article 3 of Law 287/90), following a report filed by Mytaxi Italia S.r.l.. More than 90% of taxi drivers active in Turin are members of the Cooperativa. At the same time, the Authority adopted an interim decision to evaluate the possible adoption of interim measures to prevent the continuation of the conducts imputable to the Cooperativa.

The investigation concerns both the non-compete obligations applicable to members of the Cooperativa Taxi Torino contained in its Statute , as well as the exclusion from the cooperative of a number of members, who violated these obligations.
The non-compete obligations are intended to prevent the simultaneous use by members of multiple intermediaries for the provision of services for the collection and sorting of the demand for taxis, forcing them to devote all their capacity (in terms of rides per shift) to the cooperative.

Insofar as they are applied to the majority of taxi drivers in a given geographical area (as in Turin), these obligations appear to be able to prevent or hinder the access and development of other suppliers and, in particular, of Mytaxi, a new operator offering innovative services of this kind and operating according to an “open” platform model in the market of services for the collection and sorting of the demand for taxis in Turin.

This morning, officials from the Italian Competition Authority, with the support of the Special Antitrust Unit of the Italian Guardia di Finanza, carried out dawn raids at the premises of the cooperative, as it is believed to be in possession of relevant information to the purposes of the investigation.

Rome, 16 October 2018

• Press release (Italian version)