Italian Competition Authority, Pitruzzella discloses the annual report to the Parliament
PRESS RELEASE
"COMPETITION FAVOURS THE REDUCTION OF ECONOMIC RENTS AND INEQUALITY, PROMOTING INNOVATION AND CONSUMER WELFARE"
Despite the markets and competition being subject to increasingly stringent criticism, competition remains a cornerstone of economic growth and the essential tool to foster innovation, the reduction of inequalities, business efficiency and consumer welfare. In his presentation of the Annual Report today at Montecitorio before the President of the Chamber, Laura Boldrini, President Giovanni Pitruzzella summarised the activities of the Italian Competition Authority of the past year, in relation to the current economic and social situation and indicating the ideal objectives for the near future. ‘Competition stimulates innovation, promoting productivity and economic growth and if today’, Pitruzzella added, ‘the difficult balance between predominance and the markets tends to move in favour of the former’, the weakening of competition in national markets would have the effect of ‘increasing monopoly rents, reducing the possibilities of consumer choice, raising prices for many goods, discouraging innovation, favouring crony capitalism’.
‘In this cultural and political climate,’ noted Pitruzzella, the Italian Competition Authority, intervening to reduce economic rents and social inequality, and to foster innovation and the redistribution of resources, rediscovers certain cases that take into account changing scenarios, such as the abuse of a dominant position to set excessive prices. This was the case of the fine imposed on the South African holding company Aspen, fined for increasing the prices of ‘life-saving’ anticancer drugs for children and the elderly by between 300% and 1500%. A measure that was recognised as ground-breaking just yesterday by the European Commission, in launching proceedings against Aspen Pharma for the same charges, declaring Italy to have paved the way with its fine of 5 million Euros. ‘The case confirms the attention that the Italian Competition Authority has focused on the pharmaceutical industry for some years,’ highlighted Pitruzzella, ‘although it must be pointed out that, apart from the illnesses sanctioned by the Authority, the pharmaceutical industry is making a big contribution to the GDP of our country, as well as to the protection of the health of our fellow citizens.’ Another example is ENEL's undertakings, approved by the ICA, on energy costs, which will enable consumers to save over 500 million Euros over the next three years.
President Pitruzzella noted that, in the past year of the Italian Competition Authority’s activity, there has been a considerable fight against cartels in public procurement, in collaboration with the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC), which has led to significant results, as demonstrated by the fine for the cartel between companies in the Consip (Italian Public Administration procurement centre) tender for schools cleaning services. Other preliminary investigations have been launched, starting from this, also for a Consip tender, as regards Consorzio Nazionale Servizi and six other companies entrusted with facility management services for Public Administration buildings, Universities and Research Institutes.
President Pitruzzella then recalled the measures aimed at protecting the weaker consumer segments or repressing those unfair commercial practices that have a huge impact on the markets. From the Volkswagen case to misleading advertising messages, aggressive debt recovery and teleselling. ‘The intervention of the Authority’, highlighted Pitruzzella, ‘serves to eliminate conducts that aggravates the conditions of inequality or threaten confidence in the functioning of the markets. The loss of confidence’, he continued, ‘is a crucial issue, because it accentuates the crisis of legitimacy affecting the market institution and hampers transactions and growth in demand.’ In particular, in the banking sector, Pitruzzella mentioned the fine imposed on Banca Popolare di Vicenza for conditioning the issue of loans to consumers for the purchase of convertible shares or bonds, as well as the undertakings proposed by Unicredit for variable rate loans, which ‘remedied ab origine the negative financial effects suffered by consumers’.
Pitruzzella devoted part of his speech to the digital economy, the key industry in which the Italian Competition Authority has intervened on several occasions, to promote the development of the ultrafast broadband network, monitor the dynamics of the Big Data economy, overcome regulatory obstacles in the sharing economy and protect the consumer in online transactions, promoting e-commerce development.
Among the most significant cases in this regard, President Pitruzzella cited the fines imposed on Whatsapp for persuading consumers to hand over their personal data to Facebook, and TicketOne and certain secondary market operators for the online sale of tickets for events.
The Italian Competition Authority also works to promote the culture of competition and compliance. ‘In view of this,’ Pitruzzella pointed out, ‘the application of the sanctions guidelines is introduced, with significant reductions in fines for those companies that have adopted programmes of compliance, the development of a ‘competition code’, courses and conferences in schools, the introduction of an annual award for the promoters of culture of competition and consumer rights, the use of social media to showcase our activities, in-depth seminars and study sessions.
President Pitruzzella concluded by emphasizing the importance of the global vision of the Italian Competition Authority and of a policy of competition to drive towards a progressive reduction in market distortion.