MOTORWAY ASSISTANCE: INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED OVER ABUSE OF A DOMINANT POSITION AND ANTI-COMPETITIVE ARRANGEMENT
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
MOTORWAY ASSISTANCE: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION AND POSSIBLE ANTI-COMPETITIVE ARRANGEMENT
ANAS, Società Strada dei Parchi and Società Autostrada Tirrenica may have abused their dominant position by charging unjustified fees to breakdown assistance companies authorized to provide services on a number of stretches of motorway. Possible arrangement between ACI Global and Europ Assistance VAI regarding prices charged to motorists.
The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 20 September 2007, decided to open an investigation into the motorway breakdown assistance business to determine whether there was an abuse of a dominant position by ANAS, Società Strada dei Parchi and Società Autostrada Tirrenica and/or an anti-competitive arrangement between ACI Global and Europ Assistance VAI.
ALLEGED ABUSE OF A DOMINANT POSITION
In the view of the Antitrust Authority, the motorway operators ANAS, Società Strada dei Parchi and Società Autostrada Tirrenica seem to have exploited the dominant position they enjoy over breakdown assistance by charging towing and repair companies a fee for the services furnished by the radio rooms that handle motorists' calls. Such a fee seems to have no economic basis, nor is it justified by any regulation. The motorway operators have an obligation to provide for the organization, promotion and maintenance, amongst other things, of a breakdown service which in some cases may be seen as a true public service. As recompense for the exercise of this function, the operator keeps the whole of the motorway toll paid by users.
The three motorway operators, in addition to imposing the fee in question, subjected the renewal of ACI's and VAI's authorization to carry out the service to the payment of a much increased charge for each intervention carried out on their networks. Specifically, ANAS and SP applied an increase in the radio room fee to the new agreements in force since 2006, raising it from the previous €3.00 VAT to a charge of €7.50 VAT for each instance of assistance carried out. SAT acted differently but with similar results by charging the breakdown companies in 2007 a fixed amount of €7.00 VAT for each repair shop owned by the breakdown operator or having an agreement with it, in addition to a radio room fee of €4.00 VAT for each instance of assistance carried out.
ALLEGED ARRANGEMENT BETWEEN SSM OPERATORS
The maximum charges for SSM services are set by the motorway operators in their association (AISCAT) and are subsequently transferred to the SSM Regulations produced by each motorway operator. Surveys of SSM services on all motorways country-wide show that ACI Global and Europ Assistance VAI both use the maximum charges set by AISCAT. Such parallelism in fixing the commercial conditions to be applied to the clientele may constitute grounds for a charge of making an anti-competitive arrangement.
Rome, 25 September 2007