Stampa

EXPLOITATION OF PRIVILEGED COMMERCIAL INFORMATION


PRESS RELEASE



PRESS RELEASE


TELEPHONY: AUTHORITY LIMITS TELECOM ITALIA ACTIVITIES DESIGNED TO WIN BACK CUSTOMERS WHO HAVE CHANGED TO ANOTHER OPERATOR, SO AS TO FOSTER COMPETITION IN VOICE SERVICES AND BROADBAND INTERNET

The lists of customers to be contacted are to be checked by an independent third party in order to ensure the sales division does not use data held by the network/wholesale division. A free phone number to be made available to customers to report aggressive offers by sales agents. Accepted and made binding the undertakings proposed by the company to close the investigation into possible abuse of a dominant position without officially establishing a violation.

The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 11 December 2008, decided to accept and render binding the commitments proposed by Telecom Italia within the investigation begun on 24 October 2007 into the possible abuse of a dominant position in the markets for voice telephony provided to residential and non-residential users and for retail broadband internet access services. It is the Authority's view that the commitments presented by Telecom Italia, which were strengthened during the course of  proceedings, are adequate to create a more competitive environment and to remove the originally claimed anti-competitive characteristics, by eliminating the risk of improper use of the wealth of data held by the company in its role as owner of the public telephone network. Consequently, the case has been closed without officially establishing a violation.

The investigation was begun following a series of complaints lodged by Fastweb and Wind, claiming that Telecom Italia had adopted an aggressive marketing policy that selectively targeted former customers or customers who were switching to the competition, exploiting the privileged set of information held by Telecom in its role as traditional owner of the network.


Specifically, Telecom Italia must take the following measures:

1) Commitments relating to “winback” or “retention” activities

Telecom Italia, borrowing from similar international experience in the application of the so-called “winback rule”, will not activate services for customers who have switched to a competing operator within the previous four months, unless a spontaneous unsolicited request to do so is received from the customer.
In this way the company will significantly limit “winback” activities, thus reducing the phenomenon of loss of customers by competitors in the period immediately following the activation of voice and data services, that being a period in which the competitor will have an opportunity to demonstrate to its new customer the quality and reliability of the service it offers.

Telecom Italia further undertakes to make its sales promotions available to all, without discriminating between its own and other operators' customers, and to guarantee that, for any offer, improved conditions will be automatically applied to all Telecom customers who have signed up for the offer in question without the need for a specific request. These commitments will mean that the operator enjoying a dominant position will not selectively target customers in transition or customers who have already migrated to other operators.


2) Commitments relating to use of information about own or competitors' customers

Telecom Italia will engage an independent third party to check the procedures for creating marketing lists of users to be contacted for the promotion of fixed-line voice or data services. The third party will, amongst other things, check that said marketing lists do not contain any data extracted from the databases of Telecom Italia's Network or Wholesale divisions (such as information on competing operators' customers). This is intended to eliminate any worry as to the possible illicit exploitation of that information resource.


3) Commitments relating to agent incentives and disparagement

Telecom Italia will maintain, for its sales force, the same incentive mechanisms for the acquisition of customers from other operators as for the activation of new installations, and will reinforce its ban on disparaging competing operators. Thus, Telecom Italia will avoid offering greater incentives to its sales force, in the form of higher commissions, for the acquisition of customers won away from the competition.


4) Commitments relating to  consumer protection

Telecom Italia will set up a free telephone line for the use of customers who wish to complain about having received unwanted, annoying or aggressive calls from the company's agents, whether they belong to a direct or indirect sales network. Complaints must be answered within 30 days.


Rome, 20 December 2008