AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

 DEBT COLLECTION: THE ANTITRUST AUTHORITY’S NEW INTERVENTION AGAINST AGGRESIVE PRACTICES.

SOLE TRADER SANCTIONED WITH A FINE AMOUNTING TO 50 THOUSAND EUROS

In the last six months, three provisions have been adopted against businesses summoning customers to small claims courts lacking jurisdiction so as to intimidate and induce them to pay inexistent debts.

The Antitrust Authority carried out a new intervention for the protection of consumers bombarded with allegedly lapsed or inexistent debt summons. In a meeting on 30^th May 2013, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato sanctioned with a 50 thousand Euro fine the sole trader Consuelo Paravati which, according to investigations, systematically summoned many consumers, through lawyers, to small claims courts different from those with territorial jurisdiction, without proceeding with the filing of the cases.

In the last six months, the Antitrust Authority has carried out three provisions against a practice considered aggressive by the consumer’s Code because based on a threat to start legal actions which are clearly rash or groundless.

The preliminary investigation carried out against the business Paravati evidenced a systematic summoning of consumers to small claims courts without jurisdiction. Said consumers were dislocated throughout the national territory and in particular in Sicily. Moreover, the summons sent to the consumers were not followed by a regular filing of the case: the date indicated as “first hearing,” used to psychologically impress consumers, resulted inexistent. By sending the summons, the business’s aim was for consumers to quickly pay the amount requested, rather than being exposed to litigations, without verifying the validity of the indebtedness. Said practice lasted at least from April 2012 to April 1013. The Authority obliged the business to publish an excerpt of the sanctionatory provision in two newspapers.

Rome, 15^th June 2013