PRESS RELEASE

Competition Authority Chairman Pitruzzella:
“Intelligent competition regulation
to benefit small and medium-sized enterprises”

“If it is true that competition fosters economic growth, small and medium-sized enterprises are the ones that suffer the most from a lack of intelligent regulation as they are more strongly impacted not only by the burden of direct financial costs but also by so-called information costs which undermine their competitiveness,” said Italian Competition Authority chairman Giovanni Pitruzzella in his talk at the conference on “Quality of rules and competitiveness of SMEs” held today at the Prime Minister’s Office in Rome.

Italy, as the Competition Authority chairman pointed out, has a significantly higher number of micro-enterprises than the European average. In 2013, 384,000 of them were set up, compared with 371,000 which ceased trading: a positive net change of 13,000 companies, representing “a modest but encouraging increase” of 0.2% on the precious year. In Pitruzzella’s view, these figures confirm that small and medium-sized enterprises constitute “a significant driving force for economic development and growth”.

The AGCM chairman went on to note that “on many occasions the Competition Authority has issued opinions to the Prime Minister’s Office for the purpose of appealing against regional laws restricting competition before the Constitutional Court”. Out of 27 cases, in 15 the government challenged newly adopted regional laws and in 9 cases the Court declared them unconstitutional. Most cases concerned restrictions on shop opening and closing times, unjustified limitations on the opening of large retail outlets, obligations to establish registered offices in a given area or to respect minimum distances, and loans of unlimited duration.

“The Authority”, concluded Pitruzzella, “could provide administrations with expert help in correctly implementing competition impact analysis concerning regulation, as has already been trialled in the UK, by involving it more in rule-making processes”. This cooperation, according to Pitruzzella, should be brought forward to the stage at which the rule in question is still a proposal, so that “the impact of existing regulations and the newly adopted regulation on competition” can be assessed in advance.

Rome, 03 December 2014