BREAD: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY FINES BAKERS' ASSOCIATION OF CITY AND PROVINCE OF ROME FOR ANTI-COMPETITIVE ARRANGEMENT OVER PRICES

The association provided its members with recommended prices, thus encouraging price alignment at a higher level than might have been the case in a free-market environment.

The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 4 June 2008, fined the Unione Panificatori (Bakers' Association) of the City and Province of Rome, for having set up an anti-competitive arrangement by publishing recommendations as to minimum prices or minimum increases for all categories of bread sold by bakers in the area.

The Authority views the arrangement as a serious offence but since the Bakers' Association of Rome is an association of businesses it was only able to calculate the fine of Euro 4,430 as a percentage of the association's income (Euro 55,372).

The Authority's inspectors found that the Unione Panificatori di Roma (a direct or indirect grouping of 415 businesses) had already, in 2003, held various meetings on the subject of bread prices and finally, in September 2007, drew up and distributed a list of “recommended prices”. The list provided indications as to retail prices (a range) for the “rosetta” (rose-shaped roll) and “casereccio” (home-style) bread, the two most popular types in the Province of Rome, and ‘recommended’ increases for all other types of bread.

In the Authority's view, by indicating minimum prices the association encouraged the adoption of standardized prices at a level higher than would have been the case in a regime of free competition.

In assessing the seriousness of the arrangement, the Antitrust Authority took into account the staple nature of the items subjected to the said arrangement as well as the awareness on the part of the Unione Panificatori di Roma of the existence of a ban on the distribution of price lists.

Rome, 17 June 2008