AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

THE ANTITRUST AUTHORITY ORDERS AN ONLINE AUCTION OPERATOR TO SUSPEND THE CAMPAIGNS FOR WINNING OVER NEW CLIENTS: INSUFFICIENT TRANSPARENCY AND OMISSIONS OF INFORMATION

Precautionary measure by the Antitrust Authority against Flamingo Intervest Ltd, having its registered office in the British Virgin Islands and operating in the sector of online auctions through various websites, such as www.dandybids.com and www.wippy.com. The Competition and Market Guarantor Authority, relying on collaboration from the Italian Financial Police’s Special Market Protection Unit within the scope of the investigation into the conformity with consumer legislation on the part of the various forms of online auctions, has held that the said operator should suspend any activity aimed at gaining new subscriptions to its own sites through invitations to take part in surveys, requests of feedback and their like, as submitted to consumers via the appearance of pop-up windows while surfing on the Net, the dispatch of e-mail messages, and other methods.

Apparently, according to several reports received by the Competition and Market Guarantor Authority  (Agcm), the operator at first invites the contacted consumers to take part in a market survey: once it has secured the interlocutor’s willingness and has drawn out the requested information, Flamingo Intervest puts forward the possibility of receiving a “premium” for subscribing to the initiative, in exchange for payment of a paltry sum compared to the value of the item as alleged transport costs. Thereafter the company, besides failing to deliver the promised product, seemingly utilizes the consumer’s credit card data to charge different or additional sums to the one agreed upon, and send injunctions to pay: that is so by virtue of the fact that, through his acceptance to receive the premium, the consumer also unknowingly agreed to a paid subscription to the online auction service.

Rome, 11 March 2015