PRESS RELEASE

AIRPORT SECTOR: ANTITRUST LAUNCHES INQUIRY INTO POSSIBLE ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION BY ADR
FOR COMMERCIAL SERVICES INSIDE THE AIRPORT

According to a complaint by the National Association of Transport Suppliers, royalties were demanded from Hertz Italia for car rentals outside the airport by threatening to rescind the concession agreement for internal business spaces.

In a meeting on 26 April 2012, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato decided to launch an investigatory proceeding to determine whether the ADR (Airports of Rome) company has abused its dominant position in the market for the supply of the goods and spaces needed to do business inside the Airport.

The investigation was initiated in light of a report received from the National Association of Transport Suppliers (Assofort), which complained of abusive behaviors against Hertz Italia, one of its member companies. On more than one occasion, according to the complaint, ADR threatened to rescind Hertz Italia's sub-concession contract for the use of internal spaces unless the latter paid a percentage of its proceeds for rental car business conducted outside airport confines under the "Advantage-rent-a-car" brand name.

Hertz Italia offers this service through the De Montis Holding (DMH) company, which rents Hertz's cars to the public exclusively by means of internet advertising - typically with online contracts via websites dedicated to travel offers – without any physical facilities being dedicated to its commercial intermediation. According to Assofort, this is what enables the company to offer low cost services.

In the Rome Airport case, DMH uses a lot located several kilometers beyond the airport perimeter, and the customers who stipulate online Contracts are brought there by a Shuttle that picks them up on the Airport’s perimeter road.

Based on the information currently available, according to the Antitrust the abuse of dominant position that may be constituted by ADR's conduct consists first of all in the attempt to impose unjustifiably onerous conditions on Hertz Italia in the form of payments for services not rendered, given that Advantage's rental car business is conducted outside the airport area. The conduct adopted by ADR in regard to Hertz Italia and DMH, furthermore, may have also been designed to send a broader signal to deter the provision of any low cost rental car services in the vicinity (but outside the confines of) the Airport. ADR, in fact, is not impartial to the dynamics of the rental car market because of the royalties it charges, which are commensurate to the transaction volume of rental car services based inside the Airport.

According to the Antitrust, ADR's conduct is therefore susceptible to block or restrict the supply of low cost services, thereby prejudicing the development of business activities outside the Airport that have the capacity to exert beneficial competitive pressures on existing rental car services with consequent benefits for the consumers.

The investigatory proceeding shall be concluded by 3 May 2013

Rome - 3 May 2012