PRESS RELEASE

Internet: Estesa Limited fined one and a half million for the unfair commercial practices of the www.italia-programmi.net website

The phenomenon has affected over 25 thousand consumers who used the Contact Center and Web Forms to help contact the Authority. The measure was sent to the Prosecutor of Rome, who has already opened a file on the case. The Polizia Postale was also informed, has been cooperating actively with the Authority and will continue to pursue the criminal aspects of the affair. It turns out that Estesa (which did not even mount a defense before the Authority) has not initiated any legal actions against the consumer "victims" of the unfair commercial practices that were ascertained.

The Antitrust has sanctioned the Estesa Limited company, which is based in the Seychelles, with a 1,500,000 euro fine. The deceitful and aggressive commercial practices implemented by this company through the www.italia-programmi.net website have affected over 25 thousand consumers to date, who turned to the Authority with the help of its Contact Center and Web Forms.

The phenomenon involved a variety of software products that seemed to be offered for free. Consumers would Google the name of a product (freely available on the internet) along with key words like 'free,' and the top result would be the www.italia-programmi.net link to this website's home page. After entering their personal information as required to register and download the desired software, consumers unknowingly activated a pay-based contract for a two-year subscription at a cost of 96 euros per year, even though no credit card or any other payment method was requested at the time. The registration page reported the terms of subscription in a manner that was visually insufficient to be readily comprehensible.

After drawing the users in, the company would not start sending requests for payment until ten days after registration, thus making it impossible to exercise the right to withdraw, a right which it denied, in any case, even to users who sought to exercise it within the time limit. The requested payments were to be made by bank transfer to an account at a Cyprus bank. Consumers who did not pay were then subject to undue psychological pressure in the form of payment solicitations (via email or letter) that used ominous tones, applied additional costs and threatened penal action, which is not even a valid option in our country. Estesa even solicited various consumers who had never registered on the website.

The Antitrust decided to submit a copy of the final measure to the State Prosecutor of Rome, who has already opened a file for the case. The final resolution has also been communicated to the Guardia di Finanza and the Polizia Postale, which have been cooperating actively with the Authority and will continue duly to pursue the criminal dimensions of this affair.

The resolution, which established Estesa's illegal conduct in violation of the Consumer Code, will also be distributed throughout the international circuit of consumer protection authorities, given how the practice is highly prone to "replication" in similar forms in other countries.

In the end, it turns out that Estesa (which did not even mount a defense before the Authority) has not initiated any legal actions against the consumer "victims" who refused to pay what was asked of them in the context of the unfair commercial practices that were ascertained.

Rome - 4 January 2012