AGCM

The Authority has concluded six investigations in respect of some of the major operators active in the e-commerce sector through so-called Buy&Share,  ascertaining multiple violations of the Consumer Code. In particular, these were the owners of the domain names girada.com, zuami.it, bazaza.it, listapro.it, shopbuy.it, ibalo.it and 66x100.com.

Specifically, these operators, albeit by different means, have promoted a particular commercial offer in which consumers have been invited to "buy" products at a particularly discounted price, immediately paying the discounted price, but then having to wait for other consumers to carry out a similar purchase in order to obtain the product. In order to obtain the product at a discounted price, the consumer also had to take steps to directly identify the new purchasers, generally in the number of 2 or 3, or wait on a specific list managed by the seller for other consumers to "purchase" the same product.

The Authority has established that the requested payment constitutes in fact a mere reservation of the product and not the discounted purchase price of the product itself. Indeed, only reservations and payments made subsequently by other consumers allow the first consumer to obtain the chosen product at the reservation price. Furthermore, in the case of waiting on the seller’s list, the operating mechanisms are not disclosed, i.e. scrolling of the list and the waiting times, aspects that make obtaining and delivery of the product extremely uncertain.

The investigation findings have also highlighted that consumers are prevented from exercising contractual rights or being repaid the amount originally paid, from acquiring the product at a market price and exercising the right of withdrawal.

The Authority considers the violations of the Consumer Code to be severe in consideration of the particular and uncertain conditions of the offer, which was able to attract an ever increasing number of reservations and mislead a growing number of consumers as well as unduly affect those who had signed up the offer.

The operators involved were fined by the Authority for a total of over one million euros, broken down as follows:

Girada S.r.l.s. (PS10842B website: Girada.com), fine 350,000;

Zuami S.r.l.s. (PS11175 website: zuami.it), fine 100,000;

Gladiatori Roma s.r.l.s. (PS11211 website: bazaza.it and listapro.it), fine 200,000;

SHOP BUY S.r.l.s. (PS11262 website: shopbuy.it), fine 150,000;

IBALO S.r.l.s(PS11283 website: ibalo.it) fine 130,000;

E CO WORLD (PS11261 website: 66X100.com), fine 100,000.

During the proceedings, the Authority was supported by the Special Antitrust Unit of the Italian Finance Police.

Rome, 30 April 2019