PRESS RELEASE

ANTITRUST SANCTIONS AGAINST THE THREE MAIN TELEPHONE OPERATORS: 1 MILLION AND 495 THOUSAND EUROS

Antitrust sanctions against the three main telephone operators for an overall amount of nearly one and a half million euros. The Competition and Market Guarantor Authority has respectively inflicted a fine of 400.000 euros on Telecom and one of 500.000 on Vodafone, for having adopted unfair commercial practices upon the transformation of so-called “traceability services” (“Lo sai” (“Do you know”) and “Chiamaora” (“Call now”) as regards the former and “Chiamami” (“Call me”) and “Recall” as regards to the latter) into paid services.

The unfairness of the conduct, according to the Antitrust Authority, lies in the fact of having kept these services active on the sim cards sold prior to 14 June 2014, even after they were converted into paid services, thereby foisting on clients the implicit acquisition of consent to utilize them unless they had personally attended to their deactivation.

The Competition and Market Guarantor Authority (Agcm) has additionally inflicted a sanction of 150.000 Euros on Vodafone, for infringing the rights envisaged by the very Code giving effect to the European directive on “Consumer Rights”. As regards the sim cards marketed after the new legislation has come into force, the operator has in fact adopted forms envisaging the implicit acquisition of consent by the client to incur the supplementary cost of the traceability services.

In a third order, the Antitrust Authority has penalized Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A. with a 250.000 Euro fine due to another unfair commercial practice: the unilateral activation of a paid service called “Service card”, to be paid for by mobile phone clients. According to the Competition and Market Guarantor Authority (Agcm), it is an aggressive practice consisting in the exercise of such pressure as to substantially limit the consumers’ freedom of choice and conduct.

Lastly, the selfsame operators have been involved in three other orders relating to the distribution of telephone directories in paper form. This service – as it is known – has been excluded from the supply obligations by Legislative Decree No. 70 of 2012. The conduct subjected to verifications by the Authority has consisted in the omission of information on the possibility to opt out of the supply of directories, and thus to the charging of the relevant amount in the bill.

In closing the investigation, the Antitrust Authority has deemed it fit to accept the commitments by Vodafone and Telecom with regard to the notification of such a right, on its website or on a bill, on behalf of consumers. Wind has instead been penalized for the commercial practice relating to the old subscribers, and then to the new ones, pursuant to which the operator does not envisage the acquisition of an express consent to pay a supplementary cost for the service of distributing the directories. A fine of 95.000 Euros for the omission of information and one of 100.000 for the breach of article 65 of the Consumer Code concerning new subscribers were imposed.

Rome, 5 March 2015