AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

FIDELITY CARD: ANTITRUST SANCTIONS AGAINST TWO COMPANIES (90 THOUSAND EUROS) DUE TO UNFAIR COMMERCIAL PRACTICES

The Competition and Market Guarantor Authority has inflicted sanctions on Dieffe S.r.l. and Volley S.r.l., in the amounts of 70.000 Euros and 20.000 Euros respectively, at the end of two separate proceedings concerning unfair commercial practices. The companies were selling household products to consumers on a home delivery basis, by attracting them through a pretext: the delivery of a fidelity card or a free gift catalogue, so as to buy furniture and other items at discounted prices. In actual fact, the consumer ended up unknowingly signing a contract which bound him to make purchases for several thousands of Euros.

Volley S.r.l. The Antitrust Authority has imposed an administrative sanction of 20.000 Euros on Volley S.r.l. for conduct related to a single misleading and aggressive commercial practice. In particular, the investigation proved that the company offered to consumers, both by phone and through subsequent visits to their homes, the possibility of receiving a free of charge card enabling them to purchase, out of the operator’s catalogue, household items with discounts ranging from 20 to 50%. Once a home meeting was secured with the consumer, the delivery of the voucher – initially put forward as being free of charge – was subordinated to a signature on the subscription form to the offer: that entailed the conclusion of a fully fledged contract for purchasing household products. It was only once the deadline for exercising the right of withdrawal had expired that the clients would receive a new visit to their homes, in the course of which the company representative, for the first time, would manifest the true nature and purpose of the signed form, in some instances ordering consumers to buy at once the products for the amount set out in the form and threatening to institute legal actions to recoup the credit claimed by them.

Dieffe S.r.l. The commercial practice engaged in by Dieffe S.r.l., formerly Ideal Casa S.r.l., was given effect to via a similar mechanism. More specifically, the company promoted, through telemarketing and subsequent visits to consumers’ homes, a catalogue – this one, too, put forward as being free of charge – which allegedly enabled them to purchase household items with discounts up to 50%. In actual fact, the form signed by the clients, ostensibly aimed at issuing the catalogue and a “personal number” for subscribing to the promotion, consisted in a fully fledged contract for the purchase of the company’s products. In the course of the investigations, it also emerged that there were obstacles to the right of withdrawal: once the deadline for a reconsideration of the offer expired, the company would informed the consumers of the true nature and purpose of the signed form, by indicating as obligatory – in some instances in an insistent and aggressive manner as well – the purchase of products included in its catalogue; whence the sanction of 70.000 Euros inflicted by the Antitrust Authority.

Rome, 6 March 2015