AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

PRESIDENT PITRUZZELLA’S PARLIAMENTARY HEARING: “A EUROPEAN STRATEGY AIMED AT DEVELOPING A DIGITAL SINGLE MARKET”

The need for a strategy aimed at a digital single market could not be more topical and pressing”. In a parliamentary hearing before the joined Committees on Transport, Postal Services and Telecommunications and on Productive Activities, Commerce and Tourism of the Chamber, the ICA’s President Giovanni Pitruzzella once again suggested the need for a strategy capable of “updating to the modern digital context the rules regulating the good functioning of the markets”.

With Italy ranking fourth from last among the European Countries in digital diffusion and considering the EU’s gap in digital competitiveness compared to Japan, the United States and South Korea, “it is necessary – according to Pitruzzella – for e-commerce not to be held back by consumers’ unmotivated mistrust related to the safety and quality of products sold online. Moreover, consumers should not doubt about the possibility to obtain forms of refund in case of non-delivery of goods, product damage or non-conformity with what advertised online”. According to Pitruzzella’s opinion, “a digital revolution cannot fully affect the economy if consumers perceive the Internet as a place where users’ rights are often tampered on by giants not subject to effective rules and regulations”. For these reasons, the ICA’s President is convinced that “a virtuous innovation process of the economy and economic growth can be triggered only by overcoming consumers’ mistrust towards the web”.

As regards the proposal concerning contract directives for the supply of digital contents, Pitruzzella highlighted that “there are no specific European laws protecting consumers should the digital content not be in conformity with what provided for by contract”. Therefore, “the ICA’s hope is that, within the inter-institutional negotiation following the publication of the directive proposal, more solidly anchored regulations may be provided as regards the conformity of digital contents to directive 1999/44/EC and directive 2011/83/EU (for example, with reference to delivery), avoiding an unjustified discordance between the general sale regime of tangible assets and that of the supply of digital goods”.

The ICA fully shares the aim to support the development of e-commerce and agrees in principle with the approach adopted by the European Commission to proceed with the harmonization of regulations applicable to the online purchase of goods and services. However, the ICA deems that “while several specific rules find implementation only with reference to remote contracts, currently non-conformity regulations are applied indiscriminately to the sale of all consumer goods”. Hence, there is “the risk for the community tool to introduce an unmotivated fragmentation in the national regulatory systems”. Therefore, the ICA “hopes that the regulatory amendment of the conformity regime in remote sale contracts will be pursued only on the basis of the outcome of the assessment of the general consumer goods regulation, recently launched by the Committee”.

As regards the measures regulating the versatility of online contents - such as movies, music, sport events, e-books, e-games and press articles - offered to users residing abroad and subscribed to a service provider, the ICA “agrees with the Commission’s proposal to guarantee European consumers going temporarily to a Member Country different from that of habitual residence the possibility to access the digital contents that the service providers supply legitimately in the Country of residence.” The ICA, therefore, “agrees on a regulatory intervention that, as proposed by the Committee, makes ineffective ex nunc contractual clauses hindering the cross-border transfer of digital content services in agreements between rights holders and service providers on the one hand, and between the latter and subscribers on the other hand”.

As regards cooperation for consumer protection, Pitruzzella stated that “the ICA is in favour of a possible legislative initiative capable of consolidating and strengthening administrative cooperation mechanisms for the repression of cross-border infringements capable of prejudicing consumers’ economic interests.” This intervention - as already encouraged in the public consultation that preceded the adoption of the Commitee’s report on the implementation of the Regulation - should take place on the basis of three main directives: first of all, “the Regulation’s scope of implementation should be extended so as to include commercial strategies that can be adopted at the same time by the same company in various Member Countries”; secondly, “the ICA deems advisable to intervene concerning investigative and minimum decision-making powers”; lastly, “the harmonization of minimum decision making powers should go hand in hand with their integration”.

Moreover, President Pitruzzella highlighted “that the ICA’s activity in Italy concerning consumers’ protection has been, up to now, the most solid and consolidated at European level”. In conclusion, according to the ICA’s opnion, “it is possible to increase consumers’ trust and participation in online cross-border transactions by further consolidating national authorities’ powers of intervention, while nonetheless strengthening the Commission’s role in harmonizing national actions and the sharing of information”. At the end of his intervention, Pitruzzella reasserted that “when implementing regulations for protecting competition, the broadness of the phenomena requires an increasingly European approach. This need can be satisfied by competition enforcement, moving within the international cooperation framework that makes actions coordinated at EU level possible. Therefore, it is necessary to have a common competition strategy for the digital market in Europe”.

Rome, 8 March 2016