AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

TELEVOTING: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY LAUNCHES TWO DISTINCT INVESTIGATIONS INTO UNFAIR COMMERCIAL PRACTICES BY RAI AND RTI

Decision follows initial efforts at 'moral suasion' that asked the companies to take measures to 'filter' out calls from call-centers. The proceedings shall determine whether the telephone call tallying system was deceptive from a consumer perspective.

The Antitrust Authority launched two distinct investigations into Rai and Rti in order to determine whether the televoting mechanism is transparent or whether, alternatively, it constitutes an unfair commercial practice to the detriment of consumers. The decision was made after the Antitrust Authority had already applied moral suasion to the two radio-television companies by requesting the introduction of 'filters' to exclude commercial interests from the televoting mechanism. According to the Antitrust Authority, this measure would have eliminated the threats posed by 'mass' calls from call-centers that had been organized for this specific purpose.
In response to Rai and Rti's failure to cooperate, proceedings have been launched to verify whether the call system induces spectators to spend their money by calling during the transmissions when their votes, in fact, bear no real influence on the nomination of artists, singers or personalities from the program.
According to Antitrust Authority reconstructions, the current mechanism allows for specialized operators in the sector to submit very high numbers of calls as a means of expressing predetermined preferences for specific choices. Rather than representing the sympathies of television audiences, such preferences may instead reflect the expression of agreements involving the purchase of entire packages of televotes. In essence, the entire voting mechanism may be altered without any clear, complete or transparent communication of the fact.  
The two proceedings will also investigate Telecom - the company that provides land-line telephone and internet services in Italy - as well as Polymedia and Neo Network, companies that work with Rti and Rai (respectively) as specialists in product planning and development for interactive television.


Rome, 21st October 2010