The price of coffee in Rome’s bars is not rising. At the end of March 2017, the Authority decided to proceed by moral suasion on ‘Associazione Pubblici Esercizi di Roma’ (hereinafter also ‘AEPER’), with regard to the decision taken by the AEPER Governing Board to publicise, by means of some articles in the press, a series of data relating to the increase in the operating costs incurred by merchants over the last 10 years and to "recommend" a gradual increase in the consumer price of a cup of coffee, of between 10 and 20 Euro cents, to all public commercial concerns in Rome and its province.

Codacons had also submitted a complaint on this matter.

The case was closed by the Authority at the end of June since, following the abovementioned moral suasion, the AEPER put in place suitable corrective forms of public communication for previous communications, aimed at suggesting their members to raise their prices for a cup of coffee.

In particular, in a press release, AEPER President, Claudio Pica, stated that the data disseminated aimed at focusing the attention on the increased operating costs of commercial concerns, as recorded by the AEPER Studies centre. ‘The Roman merchants have declared their willingness to cover any higher operating costs without raising their prices for a cup of coffee at the bar’ – he declared. The abovementioned press release was also taken up in articles published in online newspapers.

Rome, 27 June 2017