Stampa

A476 - Acceptance of commitments by Conai and Corepla in the market for waste from plastic packaging


PRESS RELEASE


PRESS RELEASE

 

ACCEPTANCE OF COMMITMENTS BY CONAI AND COREPLA IN THE MARKET FOR WASTE FROM PLASTIC PACKAGING

The Antitrust Authority decided to accept the commitments submitted by the National Consortium for Packaging (Consorzio nazionale imballaggi, CONAI) and by the National Consortium for the Collection, Recycling and Recovery of Plastic Packaging (Consorzio nazionale per la raccolta, il riciclaggio e il recupero degli imballaggi in plastica, COREPLA), making them binding. This leads to the closure of the proceedings that were launched against them on 17 July 2014 to check for any possible violations of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union regarding the conduct of the two consortia in the market for the management of waste from packaging in special plastic.

The investigation was started on the basis of the assumption that CONAI had in place, also in order to serve the interests of COREPLA, a single formulated strategy in the organization for the start of the recycling of this waste, to prevent the entry and the operation in the market of an autonomous system (P.A.R.I.) managed by the reporting company Aliplast SpA.; and particularly that the same consortium, for anti-competitive purposes, had: a) exploited the advisory role entrusted to it by the legislator in the context of the administrative process for the recognition of the P.A.R.I System; b) refused to conclude an agreement, required by the Ministry of the Environment, meant to assess the contribution owed by Aliplast to consortia for the management of packaged waste marked P.A.R.I. that was possibly included in the separate collection; c) taken disparaging action against its competitor Aliplast, both by means of the publication of a press release where it informed the market that the company was “not recognized” as well as by asking its clients, who made use of the P.A.R.I. System, to pay the environmental contribution that had not been paid by the company in the period between the first permission and its annulment. Even by means of its demonstration effect (the so-called signalling), this behaviour served as a barrier to the entry of other potential competitors.

During the investigation, CONAI and COREPLA submitted various commitments which, in their final version with the amendments that were introduced after an extensive market test, mainly focus on these points: 1) a commitment by CONAI not to interfere in procedures for the recognition of independent consortia, an activity that falls solely within the competence of the Ministry of the Environment, as well as a timely pre-determination of the evaluation criteria to be provided to this Ministry with the help of an independent monitoring trustee not open to conflicts of interest, whose selection is approved by the Authority; 2) the definition of a fast and reliable time-table for the conclusion of the agreements and the predetermination of criteria to establish the fees payable by independent systems to the consortium system for the management of waste flows from a separate waste collection system; 3) an obligation to publish information on their respective internet sites about autonomous systems and related recognition procedures, aimed at the removal of obstacles to the creation of new independent information systems and the connection to existing ones; 4) the application, if required, of criteria set out in Commitment 2 under the P.A.R.I. system and, in any case, of favourable conditions in the definition of the relative contribution by Aliplast, retroactively to the date of ministerial authorization of the same consortium; 5) a commitment to define by way of settlement the economic and administrative disputes regarding recognition of the autonomous P.A.R.I. system, providing – among other things – the unconditional surrender by CONAI and COREPLA to the previous environmental contribution and to that not paid for the period between the annulment of the first authorization received under the P.A.R.I. system and the release of the second authorization.

The Italian Antitrust Authority considered that these commitments are likely to protect competition because they allow the interruption and the avoidance even in future of the occurrence of misleading behaviour by the two incumbents, meant to hinder or delay the entry in the market of other independent management systems for the packaging of waste in special plastic. The commitments are sine die and are applicable for procedures for the recognition of the new systems.

Rome, 11 September 2015