The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 29 January 2009, established that the companies Terminal Darsena Toscana and Servizi Integrati Terrestri Marittimi (Sintermar) had set up an anti-competitive arrangement by coordinating their conduct with regard to the pricing of container handling services in the port of Livorno. It therefore decided to fine Terminal Darsena Toscana Euro 960,000 and Sintermar Euro 288,000.

In the view of the Antitrust Authority, the two companies, which between them have about 90% of the market for container handling services in the port of Livorno, agreed at the end of 2006 to cease negotiations with a customer, Cala Container Shipping (formerly Costa Container Lines, or CCL), and to withdraw all their preceding offers. The aim of this was to bring the price up to a level that was significantly higher than the one that the customer was about to obtain by contacting the two operators separately and comparing their quotes. The arrangement produced concrete results in that the prices in the contract, subsequently signed in January 2007 with Sintermar and CCL, were significantly higher than those that would have been applied in the absence of the collusion.

Rome, 11 February 2009