AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

CONSUMERS’ RIGHTS:LAUNCH OF THE ANTITRUST AUTHORITY-MINISTRY OF EDUCATION PROGRAM IN FIVE THOUSAND SCHOOLS

The campaign on consumers’ rights is launched at schools. Thanks to an agreement between the Antitrust Authority and the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR)’s General Directorate for students, integration and participation, the issue of protection to purchasers and guarantees, currently in force in Europe, will be tackled during a cycle of lessons that will take place throughout the Italian territory.

Legislative Decree No. 21 of 21 February 2014, by assimilating a European directive (Consumer Rights), offers in fact a broad spectrum of interventions by the Competition and Market Guarantor Authority (Agcm), in addition to the tools already in its possession, so as to sanction wrong practices and misleading advertisement. The renewed consumer legislation becomes therefore the occasion for an important growth in citizens’ awareness about the methods by which they might defend ourselves, including from the traps that are present in the online electronic trade, by relying precisely on their own rights as set forth by EC legislation. The European Union, which has just re-launched the Consumer Rights campaign for the entire 2015, has proved that it views as a central element in the process of market integration the possibility that the citizens of the 28 member States might be able to view the European territory as a single big market. The task of creating the conditions for that to be realized has in fact been allocated precisely to the Competition Guarantor, who can act through powers of investigation and sanction. Within this context, as a logical furthering of the communication campaign initiated by the Antitrust Authority   and by the European Commission on RAI’s channels so as to divulge the “Consumer Rights” initiative, a series of meetings have been scheduled, by agreement with the Ministry of Education and under the responsibility of the Agcm’s External Relations Department, in the course of which the representatives of the Antitrust Authority are going to illustrate to the students the new protections in force which they might refer to when making purchases. The first lessons, which in some instances will witness the participation of officials from the European Commission as well, will be held in the following cities: Rome, Naples, Palermo, Bari, Florence, Bologna, Turin, Milan, Vicenza, Trento and Cagliari. 

Under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), moreover, all the material from the Consumer Rights campaign will be sent this time around to 5.000 Secondary Schools of II grade (2.590 of which State-run and 2.410 Private), thereby reaching approximately 2 and a half million students, the school officials and the parent representative bodies.

Rome, 30 March 2015