PRESS RELEASE

PADUA LOCAL PUBLIC TRANSPORT TENDER, WITH PRECAUTIONARY PROCEEDINGS ANTITRUST REGULAR TIMES AND RESPECT FOR THE PRINCIPLE OF COMPETITION

Having averted the delay of the tender to award the management of local public transport services in the single basin of the Padua province thanks to the intervention of the Antitrust Authority that had started precautionary proceedings under Article 14 bis of Law 287/90. The companies affected by the proceedings, Busitalia Veneto, Busitalia Sita Nord and Aps Holding, have provided the governing entity all the information necessary to cancel the tender to award the services on schedule and in respect of the principles of competition.

On 14 September 2016 the Antitrust Authority noted that the company APS Holding SpA (owned by the Municipality of Padua) has complied with the precautionary measures adopted on 20 July 2016 in accordance with Article 14 bis of Law 287/90. This precautionary measure was undertaken within the ambit of the main proceedings, started on 15 June 2016 pursuant to Article 102 of the TFEU, against the companies Busitalia Veneto SpA, Busitalia Sita Nord Srl and APS Holding SpA to ascertain any abusive conduct by these companies, consisting in the delay and/or the omission of transferring information and data to the governing entity of the integrated basin of local public transport in Padua and indispensable to complete the entries in tenders for the procurement of services, resulting in not holding within schedule a tender that respects the principles of competition.

While the companies Busitalia Veneto SpA and Busitalia Sita Nord Srl had provided the information and the data requested from the contracting authority following the start of the proceedings, through the precautionary measure of 20 July the Authority ordered APS Holding SpA to provide to the governing entity of the local public transport basin in Padua before 29 July 2016, some information and data needed to complete the tender for the award of the above-mentioned local public transport services, as well as to submit a detailed report on its activities in order to comply with the resolution. APS Holding SpA, through the documentation received on 29 July 2016, later supplemented on 10 and 25 August 2016, has provided the requested information and the compliance report.

Having closed the precautionary proceedings, the main preliminary investigation now continues in order to ascertain violations of Article 102 of the TFEU.

Rome, 19 September 2016