AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

ANTITRUST, PITRUZZELLA’S ANNUAL REPORT TO PARLIAMENT: "INCREASED COMPETITION TO EMERGE FROM THE CRISIS AND RESUME GROWTH"

"Competition policy is a key instrument to emerge from the crisis and resume a path of growth". In the Annual Report to Parliament, presented today in the Chamber of Deputies at Montecitorio in the presence of the Head of State Sergio Mattarella, the President of the Senate Pietro Grasso and the President of the Chamber Laura Boldrini, the President of the Antitrust Authority Giovanni Pitruzzella has asserted the role and function of the Antitrust Authority at this particular stage of Italy’s social and economic life.

According to Pitruzzella, "openness to competition fits into the context of change in the legal framework which is finally creating an environment that is conducive to economic initiatives and removes some of the principle causes of the lack of competitiveness". In this regard, the President of the Autorità garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (the Italian Competition Authority) cites the labour market reform and the Jobs Act, the enabling law for public administration reform, the new Civil Justice rules, the upcoming delega fiscale for the reform of Italian tax, the forthcoming reform of the procurement code, and the ultra-wideband project.

Pitruzzella then passed on to illustrate the results of the activities carried out by the Autorità garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato in the last year. Since the beginning of 2014 to-date, the AGCM has imposed fines totalling EUR266 million (EUR186m in 2014 and EUR80m in the first five and a half months of this year), focusing on anti-competitive cartels and agreements. 23 proceedings involving agreements and three for abuse of dominant position have been concluded.

In terms of consumer protection against unfair commercial practices, a total of 210 proceedings have been concluded (163 in 2014 and 47 in 2015). In this field, the amount of fines imposed amounted to EUR30 million (of which EUR19.5m in 2014).

"The most recent period”, stressed Pitruzzella, “confirms the trend which started in 2012 of a rebalancing between decisions with commitments and decisions with fines in favour of the latter. The clear message to the markets is that illegal antitrust and unfair commercial practices are pursued with severity and that, if a wrongful act has been committed, the probability of avoiding a fine is really small".

To protect competition, the Antitrust Authority has also used other means as provided for by applicable legislation, including that of reports. From 2014 to-date, it has issued 127 opinions to Parliament, Government and public administrations: 17 cases in which the Presidency of the Council of Ministers had challenged regional laws, reported to the Authority, and nine cases in which the Constitutional Court upheld the appeal and rejected it in four. The Antitrust Authority has made ample use, finally, of the possibility of challenging administrative anti-competitive acts before the TAR: in 74% of the cases, public administrations have adapted to the directions of the Authority.

In his report, Pitruzzella then addressed the issue of the fight against corruption with regard to the profiles under its jurisdiction. After having acknowledged the "extraordinary work" of the Authority presided upon by Raffaele Canton, in a climate of mutual cooperation, the President of the Antitrust Authority reiterated that "the main antidotes to combat the spread of corruption – a veritable hidden tax on the economy - are effective competition, legal certainty and reduced bureaucracy in such a way as to reduce margins for discretion concerning interventions in the economic sphere".

In this perspective, there is also the Legality Rating reward mechanism, entrusted by law to the AGCM, further strengthened with the adoption in February 2014 of the inter-ministerial decree which set out criteria to take account of this certification in the granting of public funding and access to credit. In the meantime, the number of applications for ratings has more than doubled from 142 in 2013 to 407 in 2014, reaching a peak of 605 requests in the first five months of this year.

Meanwhile, the Antitrust Authority’s enforcement activities in matters of conflicts of interest have continued. In 2014, 612 cases were treated, including 146 cases of ineligibility in connection with ownership issues, 401 situations of conflicts of interest and 65 prohibitions after having occupied certain positions, even if for the latter "the pathological phase has been virtually eliminated due to the intensive consultation process that began in 2011". In this regard, Pitruzzella observed that "at the regulatory level, however, the reform measures necessary to strengthen the Authority’s powers of prevention and enforcement still need to be implemented by following the progress of the draft legislation still being debated in Parliament. And he added: "In this sense, the notion of conflict of interest needs to be reformulated in order to give importance to the situation of danger, in the wake of solutions adopted at the international level".

At the end of the report, pointing out that "the costs associated with the Authority’s activities do not weigh on the State budget" but rather on companies subject to its control by law, and that "the amount from fines imposed is directed into public finances", President Pitruzzella gave an account of the commitments to "pursue the best possible management of human and financial resources". This has allowed it to reduce vehicle costs by 72%, telephone bills and overtime costs by 28%, and database costs by 55%.

Rome, 18 June 2015