The Italian Competition Authority (“ICA”) identified and sanctioned the unfair commercial practices carried out by ATO ME 1 S.p.A. in the collection of the TIA (Environmental Hygiene Tariff) owed by the citizens of the ATO ME 1 Municipalities (including 33 Municipalities in the Messina area) for its environmental hygiene service for the years 2008-2012.

The ICA found that ATO ME 1 used orders for tax payment in a manner inconsistent with professional diligence. Indeed, ATO ME 1 did not set up tools and procedures to monitor payments received, receive and manage the requests of consumers regarding payment reminders and orders received and enable consumers to verify the certainty and collectability of the amounts claimed from them. As a result, ATO ME 1 issued orders for payments related to non-due receivables and did not suspend such procedure in the face of the self-defence petitions submitted by consumers claiming the groundlessness of its demands. Moreover, ATO ME 1 provided numerous obstacles against consumers who had turned to the courts for the verification of their debts, going as far as disputing the jurisdiction of the court that it itself had indicated in communications to users.

Such aggressive conduct by ATO ME 1 hindered the exercise of the consumer right to verify the effective amounts due vis-à-vis the receivables claimed by ATO ME 1 for its urban hygiene service, and unduly induced consumers to pay sums not due or due to a different extent, leveraging and their fear of having their assets seized.

The proceedings ended with the imposition of a 50,000 euro administrative pecuniary sanction on ATO ME 1.

Rome, 17 August 2017