The school publishing sector affects nearly 8 million students and 1 million teachers every year. Average household spending is €580 for lower secondary education and €1,250 for upper secondary education.

The Italian Competition Authority has closed its market investigation into the school publishing sector, which was conducted through extensive consultations with a range of stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education and Merit, publishers and the Italian Publishers Association (AIE). On the basis of its published conclusions, the Authority has sent a formal advocacy report to the Ministry and other competent top-level institutions, providing targeted recommendations for action and oversight, while reserving the right to continue monitoring the sector. Below are selected data and key findings from the market investigation.

SPENDING - Each year, school publishing materials affect nearly 8 million students and 1 million teachers. The average household expenditure per education cycle amounts to €580 for lower secondary education and €1,250 for upper secondary education. The market for new books is worth approximately €800 million per year, while the second-hand market is worth around €150 million. Prices of new books increase in line with inflation; however, the decline in purchasing power makes this expenditure more burdensome, while support schemes remain uneven across regions. The market is highly concentrated, with publishers Mondadori, Zanichelli, Sanoma and La Scuola holding a combined share of more than 80%.

The law currently caps discounts on school books at 15% of the cover price, restricting competition and increasing costs for consumers. However, the Authority considers that collective negotiations between publishers and retailers may be legitimate, as they can enable higher discounts and improve conditions for consumers.

Open educational resources (OER) and school-developed materials can also reduce costs for families and stimulate innovation, including by enabling more personalised learning pathways through new artificial intelligence tools. However, current legislation and the lack of concrete incentives limit their development and mean that, in the absence of policy changes, they are unlikely to become a competitive alternative to commercial publishing capable of driving effective competition on the merits.

DIGITAL RESOURCES - Despite the reform plans launched in 2012, digital resources remain underused in schools: more than 95% of classes adopt combined print-and-digital formats, yet only 16% of digital licences are activated. The Authority’s work highlights licensing conditions and limited platform interoperability as key factors slowing the reform and placing the second-hand market and textbook loan schemes at a disadvantage. In the final stages of the market investigation, the main publishers expressed a willingness to amend these conditions to allow licences to be reactivated at lower cost, the printing of digital content and longer access periods. The Authority encourages these solutions to become standard practice across the sector and calls for institutional action to support this approach. Finally, the Ministry has launched initiatives to promote accessibility and interoperability through a unified authentication system. Publishers and AIE have also expressed readiness to increase transparency between editions, including through amendments to their code for self-regulation. The market investigation also highlighted the potential for dividing books into modules (for example, through QR codes) to reduce their weight – which in Italy is at least twice the European average – and enable more rational replacement of individual sections.

Rome, 12 January 2026

Executive Summary

Text of the market investigation

Text of the advocacy report