The Italian Competition Authority has opened an investigation against S.I.S. S.p.A., one of the main Italian seed companies, to verify an alleged abuse of its greater commercial strength in respect of agricultural businesses interested in producing wheat of the variety "Senatore Cappelli". The process is designed to establish any violations of the art. 62 of the Decree Law n. 1/2012, which governs trade relations in the agro-food sector.

S.I.S., in particular, would have conditioned the provision of the Senatore Cappelli wheat seed - over which it has exclusive rights based on a license agreement concluded in 2016 with CREA (Council for agricolture research and analysis of the agrarian economy) - the return by the farmers of the wheat produced, delaying or even rejecting the delivery of seed in some cases. Furthermore, since 2016 S.I.S. would have significantly increased, without apparent justification, the prices of seeds of this variety.

In conjunction with the start of the investigation, offices of S.I.S. S.p.A. have been inspected by officials of the Competition Authority, aided by the Special Antitrust Squad of the Guardia di Finanza. The termination of the procedure is expected before the end of July 2019.

Rome, 27 March 2019