PRESS RELEASE

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY ACCEPTS COMMITMENT BY NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PSYCHOLOGISTS TO LIBERALIZE PRICING

Investigatory proceeding prompts the removal of all 'minimum fee' references from the professional code of conduct. Antitrust Authority terminates procedure with no establishment of a violation

The Association of Psychologists is removing all references to minimal fees from its code of conduct. This outcome was finalized on December 22, 2009, when the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato accepted the commitments proposed by the National Council of the Association of Psychologists, rendering them obligatory and bringing an end to a proceeding under way since May 14, 2009.
The Antitrust Authority had contested the National Council in regards to a competition-restricting agreement, which was imposed through their professional code of conduct, on the grounds that it could lead to the uniform pricing of professional services. The code called for professional fees to reflect the prestige of the work and the decorum of the profession, identifying a consolidated text of professional fees as the yardstick for price determination. Failure to respect the association of professional decorum with this fee structure was treated as sufficient grounds for disciplinary action.
Thanks to new measures proposed by the Association, the revised code reaffirms the principle of the freedom to negotiate fees upon the initial establishment of relations between the parties and eliminates all references to decorum as a price-setting criterion. Every reference to the consolidated texthas been removed so that it can no longer serve as a parameter of decorum for determining the fees charged by psychologists, not to mention as a potential source of disciplinary responsibility. According to the Antitrust Authority, the proposed commitments suffice to alleviate the competition-related concerns that originally signaled the need for an investigatory proceeding, and are in line with the findings of the survey on professional associations. From the Antitrust Authority's point of view, the code of conduct should incorporate concepts like decorum as general behavioral guidelines for the daily tasks and duties of professionals rather than as points of reference for the specification of economic terms and conditions.  

Rome - January 11, 2010