PRESS RELEASE

ANTITRUST LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION INTO THE CONAI AND COREPLA CONSORTIA TO CHECK A POSSIBLE ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION IN THE MARKET FOR RECYCLING WASTE FROM PLASTIC PACKAGING

Antitrust has launched an investigation into alleged abuse of dominant position against CONAI (National Packaging Consortium) and COREPLA (National Consortium for the Collection, Recycling and Recovery of Waste of Plastic Packaging) following a report of Aliplast S.p.A. company, denouncing conduct in violation of competition law in the management of waste deriving from plastic packaging, put in place by the two consortia.

Aliplast is a company that is engaged in the collection, storage, recovery and recycling of plastic packaging. The company has set up a system of self-management of their packaging waste called P.A.R.I., which allows them to trace their packaging and to manage their collections and recycling.

According to Aliplast, CONAI and COREPLA had allegedly engaged in different activities with the specific purpose of preventing final recognition of Aliplast’s independent management system and, therefore, of excluding Aliplast from the market for organising the management of such waste. In this way, CONAI had blocked the P.A.R.I. system’s entry into the market for recycling waste from plastic packaging.

In particular, it would seem that CONAI has taken, also for the benefit of COREPLA, a series of actions intended to exclude, which had a negative impact on the administrative process for granting the necessary permits for the P.A.R.I. System to operate as an independent management system. This was intended to impede access to the market not only to the competitor Aliplast but potentially also to all secondary and tertiary manufacturers of plastic packaging that might intend submitting an application for recognition of autonomous systems.

The measure was notified to the parties in the course of some inspections carried out in collaboration with the Competition Group of the Special Market Protection Unit of the Guardia di Finanza (Tax Police).

The investigation must be completed by 31 July 2015.

Rome, 25 July 2014