AGCM

Today the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (the Italian Antitrust Authority) sent a request for information to the main online sales platforms and other sales sites about the marketing of hand sanitizers and disposable respiratory protection masks.

This response was the result of numerous complaints lodged by consumers and associations concerning, on the one hand, claims relating to the alleged effectiveness of these products in terms of protection and/or counteraction against Coronavirus and, on the other, the unjustified and significant increase in the prices of these products recorded in recent days.

Companies will now have to communicate, within three days, the measures they have adopted to eliminate advertising slogans that could mislead consumers about the effectiveness of products in preventing/treating COVID 19 diseases as well as the measures they have implemented to avoid unjustified and disproportionate price increases.

Rome, 27 February 2020