Stampa

T-LINK/GRANDI NAVI VELOCI


PRESS RELEASE




PRESS RELEASE

SHIPPING: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO GNV (GRANDI NAVI VELOCI) OVER POSSIBLE ABUSE OF ITS DOMINANT POSITION

The investigation must determine whether the company, through abuse of its dominant position and by way of exclusionary conduct, is attempting to drive out of the market a competitor which has just begun offering ferry services for trucks and passengers with cars on the Genoa-Palermo route.

The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 6 August 2009, decided to launch an investigation into GNV (Grandi Navi Veloci) to determine whether the company, by adopting various exclusionary tactics, is trying to drive out a competitor which has recently begun servicing the Genoa-Palermo route, thus abusing its dominant position.

This decision, of which GNV was advised today during the course of a number of inspections carried out in collaboration with the Special Units of the Guardia di Finanza (Fiscal Police), was based on a complaint received from T-Link, a company that since 18 April this year has been operating on the Genoa Voltri-Termini Imerese route for the transport of trucks (and, since July, for passengers with cars).

According to the complaint and based on the initial information gathered during the Authority's inspections of the company's offices, since T-Link's arrival on the route in question, it seems GNV, which until then had had a market share of 90%, adopted a highly aggressive and anti-competitive strategy resulting in a set of behaviours calculated to drive T-Link out of the market. In particular, it is claimed that GNT: 1) offered selective discounts, specifically aimed at road transport companies that were interested in the new competitor's services; 2) strategically increased its own capacity in order to undermine the new company's offerings; 3) applied ‘predatory’ pricing, i.e. prices that were so low that T-Link could not match them without suffering losses that would have made its business unviable; 4) threatened commercial reprisals against road transport companies that, following a GNV counter-proposal, still wished to continue using T-Link; 5) denigrated T-Link.

In the Authority's view, the conduct complained of could constitute improper exploitation by GNV of its dominant position with the aim of driving T-Link from the market.

T-Link's exit from the market would be likely to hurt users of the service to a huge extent: early indications are that the arrival of the new operator produced improvements in the ferry service for trucks in terms of lower fares and, above all, in terms of the quality and reliability of the service provided.


Rome, 11 August 2009