The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 26 July 2007, closed its proceeding against Autostrade Spa (now Atlantia) for abuse of a dominant position over the matter of Viacard passes, accepting the company's own commitments aimed at re-establishing fair trading conditions.

The investigation was begun last may following a number of reports by consumers complaining that Autostrade refused to reimburse the residual credit on Viacard passes. By not reimbursing Viacards which are unused or only partially used during their period of validity, Autostrade, which has an exclusive concession for the management of 64% of the national motorway network, was said to place an undue and arbitrary economic burden on end users, abusing its dominant position by fixing unjustifiably harsh contractual conditions and providing inadequate information - this latter in contravention of the principles enshrined in the Consumer Code, whereby contractual conditions must be expressed in a clear and comprehensible manner.

After the opening of the investigation, Autostrade per l’Italia (ASPI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Atlantia and holder of the ANAS concession, proposed a number of commitments that were submitted for the opinion of market operators. Those commitments consist of the complete elimination of expiry dates on Viacard passes, both for those still to be issued as well as those already in the hands of consumers. For the latter, the expiry date will be eliminated by way of a change to the IT system used to manage the cards. In order to furnish users with adequate information about these initiatives, ASPI undertakes to launch a specific advertising campaign in the press and on the internet as well as in motorway service areas, at toll-booths and the “Punti Blu” customer service offices.

The commitments proposed by ASPI for the elimination of card expiry dates would seem, in the Authority's view, to remove at the source all the questions relating to fair trading on which the investigation was based.

It is also essential, in order to clear the outstanding charges, that a specific advertising campaign should be carried out regarding the elimination of the expiry date of the cards since, especially in the case of cards already issued to users, the expiry date printed on the card could mislead the consumer into throwing the card away as being no longer valid.

Based on these considerations, the Authority accepted the commitments made by Autostrade per l’Italia and rendered them obligatory, closing the investigation without formalizing the offence.

Rome, 30 July 2007