PRESS RELEASE

ONLINE DATABASES: NEW OPERATION OF ANTITRUST FOR THE PROTECTION OF MICRO-ENTERPRISES; AVRON AND IPDM COMPANIES SANCTIONED FOR UNFAIR TRADE PRACTISE

Fines totalling € 550,000. Avron collects in advance corporate data and proceeds to send communications that, upon the demand for a prompt verification of the accuracy of the data in course, conceal subscriptions with fee. IPDM is involved in the recovery phase of the supposed claims. It is the fourth measure decided by the Authority in 2014 to stem the flow. In total it was imposed one million and seven hundred thousand euro in fines

New Antitrust intervention against companies that by collecting business data induce micro-enterprises to underwrite expensive paid subscriptions. The Authority has in fact applied sanctions of a total of € 550,000 to the company of Bratislava Avron and the Greek company IPDM (Internet Publishing & Demand Management Mon. Ike): the first sends notices that upon the demand for a prompt verification of the accuracy of the data at present course of an online database, hide paid subscriptions. IPDM intervenes later in the recovery phase of the supposed claims.

This is the fourth measure adopted in the current year by the Authority to stem the flow of the request for money to micro-enterprises in consideration of never requested recording on online databases of companies domiciled abroad.

Similar mechanisms have been put in place by the various undertakings sanctioned by the Authority. In particular Avron, based in Bratislava, collects business data of Italian micro-enterprises, in a unilateral and not required manner, placing them in their online database called the “Registro del Mercato Nazionale” (“Register of the National Market”). Then it sends to pre-recorded micro-enterprises a commercial communication apparently to urge the correction or update of pre-entered enterprise data by filling in the attached form. In fact, the aggressive tone of the communication, together with the graphics used, pushes the micro-enterprises to sign the form in order to avoid incurring the negative consequences threatened by the communication itself, thus ending up joining an expensive multi-year subscription to a service of advertisements. This service, however, is only the inclusion of any corrections made by the module and the indication of the geographical location of the micro-enterprise with the free Google Maps service, in the accounts unilaterally created by the professional on its online database. The 'discovery' comes with the receipt of the first invoice for payment sent by Avron only after the expiry of the deadline for exercising the right of withdrawal. In the event of non-payment, it is the same Avron starting to send reminders one after the other, in which the cost increases due to late payment interest and for the 'costs of practise management' and only later it is replaced by the Greek company, initially with transactional proposals and then with the threat of resorting to coercive collection requesting at the Court of Bratislava the European injunction.

Last April, the Antitrust Authority had sanctioned, in two separate measures, the German company DAD and the Slovak company CBR (respectively with € 500 thousand and € 50 thousand), as well as for a similar practise the Italian company Kuadra (€ 100 thousand), while in January the Mexican company Expo-Guide had been sanctioned (500 thousand euro).

Rome, 23 June 2014