AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

COMBATING COUNTERFEITING:

ANTITRUST RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR ITS INNOVATIVE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACTION AGAINST SALES OF COUNTERFEIT GOODS ONLINE

Judged as a ‘best practice’ of great value, the recent consumer protection activities for buyers enacted by President Giovanni Pitruzzella, aimed at shutting down ‘clone’ websites selling counterfeit  brands. Attending the fifteenth award ceremony for combating counterfeiting, held in Paris, the Director General for consumer protection, Giovanni Calabrò represented the Authority.

The Italian Antitrust Authority has become the reference model in the fight against counterfeiting: the Authority’s action against websites selling counterfeit brand goods enacted at the initiative of President Giovanni Pitruzzella was indeed considered to be a ‘best practice’ of “great value” by the jury who awarded the accolade ‘highly commended’ in the context of the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Awards 2013.

The commission awarding the prize, now in its fifteenth edition, assessed the operations performed by the Authority over the past year as innovative and effective, which, in direct cooperation with the Special Market Protection Unit of the Guardia di Finanza (Italian Tax Police), prevented consumers residing on Italian territory from accessing websites selling counterfeit brand products: from Rayban (for glasses) to Prada and Gucci.

According to the organisers of the prize, Reconnaissance International and the GACG (Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group), the new consumer protection strategy protects web buyers and combats counterfeiting, which is a scourge for companies operating successfully in the market.

At the ceremony, which took place today in Paris, on the occasion of the world commemoration of the battle against counterfeiting, Giovanni Calabrò, the Director General for Consumer Protection accepted the award on behalf of the President of the Authority.

Rome, 28^th May 2013