The Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) concluded the investigation against ATAC S.p.A. initiated ex officio last November, determining an unfair commercial practice in the public railway transport service offer in Rome’s metropolitan area. The unfair practice consisted in the false promise of a frequent and conspicuous supply of transport services through the Official Timetable made available at the stations and on the www.atac.roma.it website, in the face of many scheduled rides cancelled systematically and persistently as well the failure to provide prior information to consumers about the planned cancellations.

This service - offered by ATAC on an exclusive basis along the lines of Roma - Lido di Ostia, Roma — Civita Castellana - Viterbo (the two most important Italian commuter routes) and Roma — Giardinetti - Pantano - covers a total area of about 140 km, transporting over 200,000 users daily.

The proceedings revealed the persistence and significance of the failure to carry out many scheduled rides, from 2010 to date, which in most of this period reached an incidence far higher than what is considered physiological. Evidence shows that these cancellations were to a large extent dependent on ATAC’s direct responsibilities, which in this way distorted user/consumer mobility expectations and decisions, regarding the day-to-day commute in particular, based on the service schedules expected from ATAC according to the Official Timetable.

The investigation also revealed the failure to provide or provision of inadequate prior information to users about the impossibility of taking certain scheduled rides, even in cases where ATAC had early knowledge of the internal reasons that could have caused their cancellation, thus showing a failure to comply with the professional diligence standards required of a public service concessionaire in the management of essential transport lines and urban mobility.

Such conduct, causing major inconvenience to consumers for a considerable length of time (from 2010 to date), was sanctioned because misleading and omissive, in violation of Articles 20, 21 and 22 of the Consumer Code, by imposing a fine reduced to 3 million and 600 thousand euros in consideration of the company’s current financial distress.

The ICA availed itself of the precious collaboration of the Special Antitrust Unit of Guardia di Finanza and took into account the opinions on the dissemination medium provided by the Italian Transport Regulation Authority and the Italian Communications Regulatory Authority. 

Rome, 10 August 2017