CONSORZIO DEL PROSCIUTTO DI SAN DANIELE-CONSORZIO DEL PROSCIUTTO DI PARMA
PRESS RELEASE
The Antitrust Authority has refused to renew authorization for the Parma ham Consortium and the San Daniele Consortium to impose production limits on their member companies.
The Antitrust Authority has rejected the request submitted by the Parma ham and San Daniele ham Consortia for a three-year extension to their authorization to set ceilings on the quantity of ham that may be produced by the members of the two Consortia, ordering them to abolish their production ceilings by the end of the current year.
The Authority considered that the conditions that had existed when the original authorization which expired on 31/12/98 was issued, no longer obtained. In 1996, the Authority had found that the system for controlling protected production processes, governed at that time by an Act of Parliament, had not been properly and fully defined, it had ruled that the plans limiting the production of Parma and San Daniele ham were the only means available to make up temporarily for the shortcomings in the system of control.
Today, the control system was adequate both with regard to the instruments used and the identity of those responsible for controlling production, and the efficiency of the entities carrying out these controls. In implementation of Community law, all the measures required to transfer the controlling functions to independent bodies had already been implemented.
The Authority therefore considered that the agreements relating to production plans, for which the Consortia had applied for authorization, failed to meet the conditions imposed by Section 4 of the Antitrust Act, and particularly they failed to meet the objective of improving the conditions of supply on the market.
In its reasons for refusing authorization, the Authority pointed out that because of the existence of adequate control bodies and instruments at the present time, the plans for programming quantities of ham were no longer necessary and were not appropriate to attain the declared purpose of guaranteeing conformance of DOP products with the technical specifications for production.
The quantitative ceiling set on output, and the production limits imposed on individual member companies of the two Consortia no longer brought any additional benefit to consumers. On the contrary, they created artificially high prices for Parma and San Daniele hams due to the predetermined supply structure. The Authority therefore ruled that within 180 days both Consortia must submit a report on the necessary measures to fully and finally remove all the restrictive agreements set out in the production programmes by 31st December 1999, and thereafter refrain from any conduct intended to limit production quantities.
Rome, 29th January 1999