PRESS RELEASE

Authority fines MarcopoloShop.it website
half a million Euros
for unfair commercial practices in e-commerce

At the end of a proceeding initiated following complaints by several consumers, the Antitrust Authority has imposed an administrative fine of 500,000 Euros on S.G.M. Distribuzione. On its MarcopoloShop.it website (now Unieuro.it), the company offered consumers products marked as “in stock” when actually they were not, and making confirmation of the transaction subject to a subsequent additional check regarding the availability of the products purchased by consumers on the website. This way of managing orders, dictated by specific organisational choices on the part of Marcopolo Shop, caused consumers considerable inconvenience, such as the frequent cancellation of purchase orders and significant delays in the delivery of the products concerned.

The Authority ruled that the company’s unfair commercial practices also extended to its management of the after-sales stages. Marcopolo Shop’s customer care service did not inform consumers promptly and correctly about the actual status of their order and the concrete chances of receiving the products purchased within the time promised by the company. This resulted in significant obstacles to consumers exercising their contractual rights, denying them the opportunity to make a prompt, informed choice regarding whether to wait for the order to be fulfilled or use another supplier.

During the after-sales stage, in addition, insufficient information combined with conduct designed to delay the return or release of the sums paid: instead of returning sums paid by consumers at the time of purchase, Marcopolo Shop offered them a product different from the one not in stock. In this manner, consumers were unduly influenced to purchase an alternative product rather than be refunded, especially as Marcopolo Shop was still in possession of the sums paid by consumers for the cancelled transaction.

In the view of the Competition Authority, the online sales methods implemented by the website did not comply with the rules of diligence required of a major operator in specialised large-scale retail and the new e-commerce market.

Rome, 04 December 2014