PRESS RELEASE

CONSUMER PROTECTION: IN 2011, ANTITRUST CONCLUDED 168 PROCEEDINGS WITH OVER 12 MILLION EUROS IN SANCTIONS

Commitment mechanism used in 35 cases. From the failure to honor vendor warranties to internet scams, the low transparency of free market contracts for energy to tampering with tachometers and 'fake' universities -  an overview of the Authority's work as the year comes to a close.

Over 12 million euros in fines and a total of 168 decisions - 133 full proceedings plus 35 investigations that ended with the adoption of pro-consumer measures by the interested companies. This is the result for the Antitrust Authority's application of the Consumer Code. This year, the Authority's fines weapon was once again supplemented with a mechanism by which the companies in question propose commitments that are closely monitored by the Antitrust offices during their subsequent application.

Antitrust activities – with the support of reports received from consumer organizations and individual citizens - cover a 360 degree range: from the failure to honor vendor warranties to internet scams to the low transparency of free market contracts for energy to tampering with tachometers and ‘fake’ universities.

Organized by sector, the main interventions were as follows.

ENERGY, INDUSTRY, COMPUTERS AND COMMERCE

The Antitrust sanctioned the unsolicited activation of energy and gas supplies, a phenomenon that involved the sector's biggest operators.

Internet scams are becoming more and more common and are often run by subjects based in non-European Countries who spread their unfair practices, such as payment for unsolicited services, by using websites to multiply their offensive capacity.

Used car vendors were controlled and sanctioned for tampering with tachometers to make the cars being sold seem newer.

The Authority discovered stores that were out of compliance while it was carrying out sample-based controls of the discounts offered in 2011: some operators had 'raised' their reference prices to make subsequent discounts seem even more appealing.

AGRI-FOODSTUFFS AND LARGE-SCALE DISTRIBUTION

The Antitrust broadened the scope beyond weight-loss creams and hair growth products this year: its activities also ensured greater rigor in the health and nutritional indications used for product presentation in order to keep consumers with high cholesterol, for instance, from being fooled by phrases like "cholesterol-free." Advertising by the umbilical cord blood banks of foreign laboratories was monitored with the assistance of Italian agents and branches: the Authority's inquiries caused the main companies in the sector to modify their publicity to bring it in line with more credible scientific findings.

In the context of organized mass distribution, the Antitrust enforced compliance with the vendors' statutory warranty of product conformity through a series of investigatory proceedings that concluded with the acceptance of commitments and the maxi-fine recently imposed on Apple, the computer giant.

SERVICES, TRAVEL AND TOURISM

Sanctions for on-line travel agencies that provided information with low transparency, offering rates that seemed extremely advantageous at the outset but which ended up much higher than promised during the final phases of the reservation process. In some cases, there was no system to ensure the rapid unblocking of funds that had been frozen during transactions that were never finalized, and unfairness was also encountered in the management of complaints.

In the air transport sector, sanctions were imposed for a practice implemented by national and foreign airlines (both traditional and low cost), in which the charges for the payment method used to purchase the ticket was treated as a

cost item that was distinct from the airfares promoted on the home page or on line reservation system.

Fines were also issued for the advertising campaigns (mostly via internet) of unauthorized private operators who were promoting degree programs, post-laureate specializations and bachelors of art that had no legal validity for the different disciplines in question.

COMMUNICATIONS

In the fixed-line telephony sector, the Authority sanctioned the failure to activate telephone services and the activation of unsolicited services using the remote teleselling technique. In the mobile telephony sector, inquiries addressed the promotion of rates that were contingent on special conditions and restrictions that were impossible for users to check and the ambiguous and misleading prospects for fast mobile internet navigation. Obstructions of cancellation were also sanctioned, as was continued billing for discontinued services. In the TV sector, the Antitrust fined certain minor broadcasters for fake television quizzes that in fact concealed the purchase of ring tones and pay-based participation in games for prizes. RAI and Mediaset were also sanctioned for the information furnished during televoting and the failure to provide mechanisms to prevent tampering with the system.

FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

The year that is coming to a close once again registered a few cases involving the obstruction of loan portability. The misleading nature of client communications concerning proposals for unilateral changes to variable-rate loan contracts and the interest rates for newly-opened bank accounts were also subject to sanctions.

The insurance sector is being closely monitored: the Authority condemned the practices of certain agents who were soliciting their clients for undue payments on insurance policies that had already been discontinued in the proper manner.

Proceedings also investigated various behaviors that were designed to attenuate or cancel the consumer option of benefitting from the risk category of the driver with the best record in their household.

Rome, 30^th December 2011

Table of sanctions