PRESS RELEASE

THE “ANTITRUST COUNTER” TO COLLECT REPORTS BY CONSUMERS IN ACTION AS FROM TODAY

It is called the Antitrust Counter (Sportello Antitrust) and will be the most direct way to send reports, written or spoken, to the Italian Antitrust Authority. As from today it will be available for consumers at the top of the right hand column that appears in the home page of this site.

The Counter will be used to bring together the various functions already carried out and to channel incoming messages. There are three channels that will be used: online messages through the “form” that opens automatically by clicking on the first icon in the shape of an envelope; toll-free telephone calls on number 800-166661; or a simple Tweet within the usual 140 characters provided under the social network (@antitrust_it). Of course there also remains the option to send a letter by ordinary mail to the address: Italian Antitrust Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, Agcm), piazza Verdi, 6a - 00198 Roma.

The reports, duly registered, will then be sorted – as usual – to the various Departments concerned for an evaluation of their merits. Officials of the Antitrust Authority will then verify their reliability and their validity so as to put forward to the Board of the Authority a decision whether to initiate an investigation or to put the file away, ask for specific commitments from businesses or exercise moral suasion in case of non-compliance with antitrust laws.

This Counter also includes a fourth icon that summarizes and illustrates the rights of consumers according to the European Directive in force since 14 June 2014 transposed by Legislative Decree No 21 of 21 February of that year. The key new features concern distance contracts concluded via the internet and in any case outside business premises; the extension of the duration of the right to reconsider (14 days) until the time for the reimbursement of payments made (within a period of 14 days following the withdrawal). This legislation also entrusts exclusively to the Antitrust Authority jurisdiction regarding unfair commercial practices in regulated sectors.

Rome, 12 October 2015