PRESS RELEASE

FINE OF EUR 500 000 TO RECUS S.P.A. FOR AGGRESSIVE PRACTICES OF DEBT COLLECTION

“Unfair commercial practices due to their aggressiveness”: this is what, according to the Italian Competition Authority (ICA), RECUS S.p.A. has implemented autonomously to recover various debts from companies mainly supplying household goods (electricity, gas, fixed telephony). The conduct occurred through persistent telephone reminders, constant requests and digital correspondence (through mail, sms), as well as home visits: this even through third parties such as neighbours or relatives of the debtor, in order to exert an undue influence. The purpose was to induce the debtor to pay the claims not specified in the communications, or however also disputed issues of prescription, threatening – in the event of non-payment – legal actions and other initiatives.  For this, the Antitrust Authority imposed a penalty on the company to EUR 500 000.

The case signalled to the Authority by many consumers between March 2013 and December 2014, as well as by an association of consumers. Following the inspections carried out in collaboration with the Special Protection Unit of the Guardia di Finanza, the Antitrust Authority is satisfied that RECUS has put into place behaviour that, taken together, have appreciable distorted the economic behaviour of the average consumer to which they were directed. The status of “undue influence” was caused by the conduct of the company for debt collection, carried out according to behavioural programmes planned according to corporate strategies and using a predetermined organisational set-up to carry out such programmes, with the effect of inducing consumers to take business decisions that would not otherwise have been taken.

Rome, 26 February 2015