COMPASS GROUP ITALIA/AUTOGRILL-RISTOP
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
THE AUTHORITY HAS ASCERTAINED AN ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION BY AUTOGRILL
At its meeting on 17 July 2003 the Competition Authority resolved to close the proceedings that began on 5 September 2002 against Autogrill, having ruled that the company's conduct constituted an abuse of its dominant position in violation of Section 3 of the Competition Act (Law 287/90).
The case began as a result of Autogrill's attempted take- over of its direct competitor, Ristop, which was prohibited by the Authority in two successive measures on 24 July 2002 and 5 September 2002.
The acquisition contract had made a provision, in the event that the Authority were to prohibit its acquiring the entire equity of Ristop, for Autogrill to acquire a minority interest instead, and the right to choose which third parties would acquire the majority interest in the company. When the Authority prohibited the acquisition of the 100% proprietorship and suspended Autogrill's acquisition of 45% of the equity, Autogrill began selecting the companies to which it intended to assign its aggregate contractual interest in Ristop.
Following notification that the investigation had begun to ascertain whether there had been collusion between Ristop and Autogrill, or whether Autogrill was liable for abuse of a dominant position in the motorway catering industry, Autogrill abandoned its strategic plan, and in the meantime new companies entered the market.
Partly in consideration of these new developments, the Authority considered that the conduct by the dominant company, even without any effects that excluded market entry by competing companies, nevertheless constituted a single strategy to prevent them from so doing, and at all events was an attempt to control market access, in violation of Section 3 of the Competition Act. It was precisely because the unlawful strategy implemented by Autogrill for all these reasons had failed to have any effect on the market that the Authority refrained from imposing a fine.
Rome, 28 July 2003