PROFESSIONAL TRAINING: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY SAYS RULES IN THE REGIONS OF LATIUM AND PUGLIA ARE ANTI-COMPETITIVE
Regulations need to be changed. Distortions in courses for the retail sector. Notifications sent to Presidents of Regional Governments and to Regional Ministers

The Regions of Latium and Puglia must modify their rules on professional training in the retail sector to bring them into line with competition principles. This is the recommendation of the Italian Competition Authority in two separate Notifications forwarded to the Presidents of the Regional Governments and to the relevant Regional Ministers.

In the Authority's view, Regione Lazio's rules are not consistent with competitive principles because they assign an exclusive to Regional retail associations for the organization of training courses in the retail industry. Training having to do with the serving of food and drink has also been reserved for industry associations. In the Authority's view, this artfully reduces the number of parties who may offer training and affects the choice of end users. The overall picture is aggravated by the consequent exclusion from this industry of all those parties who carried out these activities in the past. The system also offers little in the way of guarantees or protection for end users who, when they require training, are deprived of the possibility of choosing from a vast range of training products and a number of qualified suppliers: competitive comparison amongst a multiplicity of operators offers the end user a guarantee in terms of price and motivates those who provide the service to strive for productive and organizational efficiencies.

Equally out of line with the principles of competition is Regione Puglia's regulation regarding training courses for retailers which are reserved for the Chambers of Commerce and Technical Assistance Centres which, as it happens, can only be set up by industry organizations that are part of CNEL. The Authority emphasizes in this case, too, that professional training should be provided by a multiplicity of firms chosen on the basis of previously defined minimum requirements and the training programs they offer.

Rome, 7 May 2007