The Italian Competition Authority has launched preliminary investigations against Enel, A2A and Acea (the main integrated operators in the distribution and sale of electricity in Italy) to verify the unlawful nature of possible strategies, in breach of Art. 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), at the aim of, including as the perspective of the Draft of the annual law for competition of definitively terminate the standard offer regime at regulated prices, thereby moving their standard offer customer base, made up of families and small and medium-sized enterprises to the free market. The strategies of the involved three operators would all seem to be characterised by the possible commercial exploitation of the database and billing data of standard offer customers, as well as exploitation of their well-established reputation related to their integration in distribution, with a view to altering future competitive dynamics resulting from the full liberalisation of the market, to the detriment of non-integrated sellers of electricity. Such conduct could qualify as unlawful, insofar as it would be founded on non-replicable competitive advantages because only available to operators that are integrated under provision of law. Indeed, the licensee for the distribution of electricity is also awarded legal exclusivity for the management of the standard offer in the geographical area of interest, which, for Enel, consists of a large proportion of national territory, for A2A the area of Milan and for Acea the area of Rome. In order to ascertain these facts, today, the officers of the Italian Competition Authority, with the help of the Special Antitrust Unit of Guardia di Finanza, carried out inspections at the various headquarters of some of the companies of the Enel Group, A2A Group and Acea Group.

Rome, 11 May 2017