“Competizione uguale merito” (Competition equals merit) is the motto of the lessons of the Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) in second-level secondary schools, an initiative that is continuing successfully. Since 2017, the ICA’s collaboration in the activities of the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) has become even more intense on the basis of an agreement specific to this purpose.

During the first experimental phase of the School Project, the ICA held meetings with about thirty institutes and a thousand students, both at the premises of second-level secondary schools identified by the MIUR and of institutes that have also participated in school-work alternation activities. Following the positive feedback received from the schools where the first experimentation took place (between 2015 and 2017), the MIUR made it possible for all second-level secondary schools to participate in the ICA’s School Project by providing a link dedicated to the programme of Competition and Consumer Protection meetings on the "IoStudio" platform of the Student Portal, through which the schools that were interested could apply for participation and specify the number of students taking part. Requests directly involving a total of about 10,000 girls and boys were received from almost all the Regions of Italy. The first lessons were held by ICA officers officials in Central Italy, which included a vade-mecum against deception and unfair practices on the Internet.

The goal of the project is to diffuse the study of competition and consumer protection in schools and universities, including through the use of dedicated texts such as the Competition Code.

Also on this subject, the RAI national Italian TV channels has just finished screening a specific institutional message edited by the ICA, the MIUR and the European Commission on the rights of citizens who make purchases over the Internet (Consumers and rights).

Rome, 27 December 2017