On January 30 2019, the Italian Competition Authority concluded an investigation launched in September 2017 establishing the existence of a competition-restricting agreement among the companies Ecological Sud S.r.l., Ecosumma S.r.l., Langella Mario S.r.l. and Bifolco & Co. S.r.l.. The agreement consisted in a coordinated strategy for participation in the six lots of the call for tender for the collection of hazardous and non-hazardous hospital waste and its transfer to disposal facilities throughout the Campania region, for a basic price totalling more than 38 million euros. Green Light Environmental Services S.r.l was also actively involved .in the coordination strategy, acting as an advisor to all the aforementioned companies, facilitating the distribution of tender lots and the single management of the bid preparation stage.

 The call for tender at issue has been the first case of a centralised procedure grouping into lots local health authorities that were previously supplied separately. The call was issued by So.re.sa. S.p.A., the company of the Regional Authority of Campania which acts as a joint purchaser for all public bodies of the region. So.re.sa. reported to ICA that the bids submitted by the above-mentioned companies – who were the main previous providers of hospital waste collection and management services for the single local health authorities - were not in competition with each other in any of the six lots.

The agreement, by neutralising competition for the award of a tender, constitutes one of the most serious breaches of competition law, as it prevents the tendering procedures from resulting in better price and quality and greater innovation of services to the public administration and therefore, to all citizens. Due to the seriousness of the infringement, the ICA imposed penalties totalling 1,355,136 euros on the companies involved.

 During the inspection activities, ICA was supported by the Special Antitrust Unit of the Italian Guardia di Finanza.

 Rome, February 7, 2019