Following complaints on two alleged agreements aimed at restricting competition in the sector of corrugated cardboard and related packaging, the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has launched an investigation pursuant to Article 101 of TFEU (prohibiting this type of agreements), into the major Italian corrugated cardboard manufacturers, which also operate in the downstream segment of packaging production.
At European level, the market value of corrugated cardboard packaging is about 20 billion Euros and Italy is the second largest European producer after Germany. Corrugated cardboard production has recorded a strong positive trend in recent years, despite the difficult economic situation that has characterised the period. This appears to be due to the increasingly widespread practice of e-commerce and the increasingly extensive use of corrugated cardboard packaging in the food sector.
The investigated allegation concerns two independent agreements between the major Italian manufacturers of corrugated cardboard and corrugated cardboard packaging, aimed at coordinating the trading conditions in the corrugated cardboard and packaging sales markets, with particular reference to the uniform determination of selling prices and discounts, as well as the allocation of customers. These agreements allegedly have similar characteristics in both markets and are systematically monitored also thanks to the information received from the GIFCO trade association, both for corrugated cardboard and for packaging.
On 30 March 2017, officers from the ICA, with the assistance of the Special Antitrust Unit of Guardia di Finanza, carried out a series of inspections in the headquarters of the companies involved in the proceedings to gather evidence.

Rome, 30 March 2017