FORNITURA PEZZI DI RICAMBIO CALDAIE A GAS
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
The leading gas boiler manufacturers found in breach of competition law by practising market-sharing.
The Antitrust Authority has completed its investigation into the market for the manufacture and sale of wall-mounted gas boilers, and has concluded that the following companies - Ocean Idroclima, Vaillant, IABER Ferroli, Robert Bosch Industriale e Commerciale, Riello Bruciatori Legnago and Saunier Duval Italia - have colluded on a concerted practice in violation of Section 2(2) of the Antitrust Act. In view of the particularly serious nature, and the duration, of the offences, an aggregate fine of 13,500 million lire has been imposed on them.
The annual turnover of the Italian wall-mounted gas boiler market is between 900,000 and 1,000,000 million lire, equivalent to annual sales of about one million boilers. Of these, between 70% and 80% are replacements of existing boilers. The manufacturers' Authorized Assistance Centres (CATs) have become an essential link to enable them to control the process of replacing the installed stock of wall-mounted boilers, and their role has become even more important since the introduction of the statutory obligation of regular boiler maintenance under Presidential Decree no. 412/93.
In 1995 a group of boiler, water heater, and gas radiator manufacturing and marketing companies established a joint venture called Pool Aziende Servizio Sicurezza Gas (PASS GAS).
The investigation was carried out as a result of a complaint made by a private boiler owner and a number of maintenance firms. It revealed that the members of the consortium in 1995-1997 had tried to distort competition on the boiler replacement market to ensure that their market share remained unchanged.
With the introduction of the statutory regular maintenance obligation, a large number of firms had been attracted to the market (including installation firms, for example). These new firms would have made the manufacturers compete with one another to replace the installed boiler stock. To stave off this threat, the leading gas wall-mounted boiler manufacturers coordinated their commercial policies to enhance their own authorized technical assistance network, but also to place curbs on supplying the independent maintenance and servicing firms with the original spare parts that were essential to enable them to remain on the boiler maintenance and servicing market. This coordination operation was decided on at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the PASS GAS Consortium on which the leading boiler manufacturer Consortium members sat in 1995-1997. As a result, the independent servicing companies' activities were inhibited, thereby easing competition between the manufacturers in order to enable them to keep their current market shares. From the evidence gathered during the investigation, that the market shares of the main companies virtually remained unchanged in the three-year period 1995-1997, varying only to a negligible degree.
This anti-competitive behaviour was particularly serious in this case, because during the period under review it had been practised by companies which, between them, accounted for over 50% of the Italian wall-mounted gas boiler market. It must also be noted, however, that the companies subsequently wound up the consortium and cooperated with the Authority during the course of the investigation. Taking all of these elements into account, the Authority imposed a fine equivalent to 2.5% of the turnover of each company from the sale of wall-mounted gas boilers on the Italian market. Consequently, the fines imposed (in millions of lire) are:
| Ocean Idroclima | 1,448 |
| Vaillant | 2,864 |
| IABER | 2,813 |
| Ferroli | 1,174 |
| Robert Boisch Industriale e Comm. | 1,400 |
| Riello Bruciatori Legnago | 2,972 |
| Saunier Duval Italia | 920 |
Rome, 20 May 1999