News Feed http://en.agcm.it:443 en-US 2024-03-19T 04:55:36Z <![CDATA[$con.titolo1]]> http://en.agcm.it:443/en/media/press-releases/detail?id=82851f99-b970-4209-8eb0-064884494f96 2024-03-14T 10:32:00Z 2024-03-14T 10:45:49Z $con.sottocategoria The company has failed to implement appropriate mechanisms to monitor content published on the platform, particularly those that may threaten the safety of minors and vulnerable individuals. Moreover, this content is systematically re-proposed to users as a result of their algorithmic profiling, stimulating an ever-increasing use of the social network.

The Italian Competition Authority has imposed a fine of EUR 10 million jointly and severally on three companies of the Bytedance Ltd group, namely the Irish TikTok Technology Limited, the British TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited and the Italian TikTok Italy Srl.

The investigation has allowed to ascertain the responsibility of TikTok in the dissemination of content - such as those related to the "French scar" challenge - likely to threaten the psycho-physical safety of users, especially if minor and vulnerable. Moreover, TikTok has not taken adequate measures to prevent the dissemination of such content, not fully complying with the Guidelines it has adopted and which it has made known to consumers by reassuring them that the platform is a 'safe' space. In fact, the Guidelines are applied without adequately accounting for the specific vulnerability of adolescents, characterised by peculiar cognitive mechanisms from which derive, for instance, the difficulty in distinguishing reality from fiction and the tendency to emulate group behaviour.

Finally, the content - although potentially dangerous - is disseminated through a 'recommendation system' based on algorithmic user profiling, which constantly selects which videos to target to each user in the 'For You' and 'Followed' sections, with the aim of increasing user interactions and time spent on the platform so to boost advertising revenue. This causes undue conditioning of users who are stimulated to increasingly use the platform.

Rome, 14 March 2024

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<![CDATA[$con.titolo1]]> http://en.agcm.it:443/en/media/press-releases/detail?id=88e401e9-725a-4c47-a8f4-59084821d0c0 2024-03-12T 10:00:00Z 2024-03-15T 13:18:45Z $con.sottocategoria The winners are the associations, ‘La Casa del Consumatore’ and ‘Finco’, the journalist, Mario Rossi, and the student, Claudia Palomba

The presentation of the 2023 Italian Competition Authority Awards, now in its fourth edition, took place yesterday afternoon in Rome. Established by the Italian Competition Authority, the award is aimed at special contributions for the promotion of the competition and consumer protection culture.

The award went to ‘La Casa del Consumatore’ for the consumer associations category, to ‘Finco’ for business associations, to the “Quattroruote” journalist, Mario Rossi, for his article entitled “Il grande rifiuto” (The great refusal), to the student, Claudia Palomba, author of the master’s thesis entitled “Killer acquisitions e controllo delle concentrazioni nel diritto dell’Unione europea: obiettivi e criticità dell’approccio della Commissione in materia di rinvii” (Killer acquisitions and merger control in European Union law: objectives and concerns of the Commission’s approach to referrals).

The awarding jury, appointed by the Authority, was composed of: Michele Ainis, honorary president of the Italian Competition Authority Award; Chiara Fumagalli, professor at Bocconi University; Ferruccio de Bortoli, columnist with the “Corriere della Sera”; Giulio Veltri, head of the legislative office at the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy; and Maria Bianca Farina, president of Ania.

 Rome, 12 March 2024

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<![CDATA[$con.titolo1]]> http://en.agcm.it:443/en/media/press-releases/detail?id=c4db77ce-1ba7-49be-b93b-ba09c9f75f27 2024-03-06T 11:25:00Z 2024-03-11T 11:31:01Z $con.sottocategoria According to the Authority, the concerned Municipalities (Rome, Milan, Naples, Florence and Palermo) must also provide stable monitoring of the supply and an adequate level of taxi service to transport people with particularly serious disabilities.

The Italian Competition Authority continues its activity in the taxi service. In August 2023, the Italian Competition Authority sent an initial request for information to the Municipalities of Milan, Naples and Rome and to the main cooperatives and taxi booking platforms in order to examine the service provision conditions and to shed light on the serious shortcomings experienced by users.

Once the analysis of the information acquired was completed, the Authority sent a complaint to the three aforementioned Municipalities highlighting some important concerns, such as the structural insufficiency of the licences to meet the demand (which generates a very high number of outstanding requests and excessively long waiting times); a general inertia within Municipalities in requesting the necessary information from taxi cooperatives to verify the adequacy of the service, with negative results in terms of uncovering and promptly correcting any concerns; and excessive rigidity in the organisation of shifts.

On 17 November 2023, the AGCM sent another request for information to the Municipalities and taxi cooperatives of Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Palermo and Turin. A structural shortage of supply was found in the Municipality of Palermo including the absence of controls and flexible shift regulation measures, while in the Municipality of Florence there was a lack of any monitoring mechanism on the provision and quality of the service, for which the Authority decided to send a complaint highlighting these concerns.

Conversely, in the Municipalities of Bologna, Genoa and Turin, no particular concerns were found in the supply of the service, so no communication was sent.

In addition, in order to improve the efficiency and the quality of the taxi service, the Italian Competition Authority - including on the basis of the situation found in some Municipalities - suggested in its complaints that certain remedies be adopted.

Firstly, the number of licences needs to be altered to reflect demand by pushing the increase beyond the 20% ceiling set on an extraordinary basis in the ‘Assets Decree’ (no. 104/2023 converted into Law no. 136 of 9 October 2023), adopting, for this purpose, public calls for tenders to assign new licences as soon as possible.

Secondly, the quality of the service needs to be monitored in a stable, effective way, requesting, at least annually, the necessary information from taxi cooperatives to establish whether the number of active licences is sufficient to meet demand, making the results of the monitoring activity public.

According to the Authority, additional measures should also be adopted, such as regulating the second driver rule, implementing taxi sharing and increasing the efficiency of shifts. In this way, for example, in Florence - during periods of greater demand - taxi drivers could provide their services with greater flexibility and the municipal administration could issue temporary licences. It should be noted that taxi sharing is binding when at least three users are headed to the same destination area.

Finally, with a view to maintaining an adequate level of taxi service to transport people with particularly serious disabilities, the Municipalities must adjust, where necessary, the number of taxi licences issued to cars equipped to perform this particular service.

Rome, 6 March 2024

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<![CDATA[$con.titolo1]]> http://en.agcm.it:443/en/media/press-releases/detail?id=290e31a1-9e62-4705-b947-60d2d247dd28 2024-03-04T 11:32:00Z 2024-03-11T 11:33:21Z $con.sottocategoria The Authority has taken steps against the company distributing a potentially hazardous product, especially for young consumers who are also more likely to accept the challenges launched on social media.

The Italian Competition Authority has concluded proceedings - with commitments - against the company DAVE’s s.r.l., the distributor of the “Hot Chip Challenge” product. Specifically, the commitments require DAVE’s s.r.l. not to continue marketing and advertising the item and to remove it from sale.

The company has been distributing the “Hot Chip Challenge”, a potato-based snack with ingredients which make it particularly spicy, encouraging young people in particular - in a type of challenge - to consume it without drinking, to resist its spiciness.

The Authority considered that the commitments presented by the company are suitable to put an end to the illegitimacy of the commercial practice which was questioned in the communication initiating the investigation, that is, the creation of a challenge aimed, principally, at adolescent consumers (also disseminated through social media) and the inadequacy of the information regarding the risks to health associated with the use of the product. Furthermore, the Italian Competition Authority questioned the lack of relevant information about a food product that could endanger the health and safety of consumers, especially children and adolescents.

With this decision, the Authority has successfully intervened to protect younger and more easily influenced consumers from messages that encourage them to eat potentially hazardous products, exploiting their propensity to accept challenges launched on social media.

Rome, 4 March 2024

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<![CDATA[${title_entry}]]> http://en.agcm.it:443/en/media/press-releases/detail?id=bc026581-beb6-40ec-9b60-7361a7bd4f85 2024-02-28T 13:50:00Z 2024-03-15T 13:19:55Z $con.sottocategoria The company, which carries out price comparisons of offers including those for electricity and gas supply services, has spread claims without any information on how to obtain the advertised savings. Moreover, it failed to specify that its intermediation activity was remunerated, nor did it define a classification of the commercial offers specifying the criteria used

The Italian Competition Authority has imposed a fine of EUR 1,480,000 on Supermoney S.p.A. for unfair commercial practice. The company owns the namesake website, through which it performs price comparisons of offers relating, among other things, to electricity and gas supply services.

Its investigation allowed the Authority to ascertain that Supermoney spread claims without any information on how to obtain the advertised savings and defined a classification of commercial offers without specifying the criteria used. Moreover, the company did not specify that the activity, carried out through the comparison site in favour of its partners in order to enter into electricity and gas intermediation contracts, was remunerated.

Following the Authority's investigation, Supermoney put an end to its misconduct by adopting numerous measures to increase information transparency regarding the criteria for classifying offers and clarifying that the company carries out commercial intermediation activities in favour of some operators in the sector.

The transparency of the information provided to consumers with reference to electricity and gas offers, including through comparison tools like Supermoney, assumes significant importance - during this particular phase of transition from the protected market to the liberalised market - in order to guarantee an informed choice.

Rome, 28 February 2024

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<![CDATA[${title_entry}]]> http://en.agcm.it:443/en/media/press-releases/detail?id=150ad8ab-b527-4b2b-b02f-204989f748f2 2024-02-16T 15:23:00Z 2024-03-14T 11:02:53Z $con.sottocategoria Since July 2022, the company has concluded contracts and activated unsolicited supplies in the absence of subscription or consent by the consumer, also requesting the payment of undue fees

The Italian Competition Authority has fined Servizio Energetico Italiano 900,000 euro. The Italian Competition Authority’s investigation has in fact made it possible to ascertain that, since July 2022, the company has concluded contracts and activated unsolicited supplies in the absence of the subscription or consent by the consumer, moreover requesting the payment of undue fees, in violation of Articles 20 and 26(f) in conjunction with Article 66 quinquies of the Consumer Code.

Furthermore, Servizio Energetico Italiano in some cases did not send the contractual documentation or sent it late and imposed obstacles to exercising the right of cooling-off period, thus violating Articles 20, 24 and 25 of the Consumer Code.

This misconduct caused the failure, as a result of the unsolicited activation of electricity and gas contracts, to fulfill the obligation to guarantee consumers both the restoration of the contract with the previous supplier, and the right to remain indemnified in relation to any amounts invoiced.

Rome, 16 February 2024

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<![CDATA[${title_entry}]]> http://en.agcm.it:443/en/media/press-releases/detail?id=89dd129c-41de-453f-913d-de4d73f0c1f7 2024-02-14T 17:03:00Z 2024-03-11T 11:36:12Z $con.sottocategoria The companies advertised the Glo Hyper X2 and Glo Hyper Air heated tobacco devices, denying, omitting or not highlighting information relating to the consumption of tobacco/nicotine connected with the use of such devices and the prohibition of sale to minors

The Italian Competition Authority has fined British American Tobacco Italia S.p.A. 6 million euro and Amazon EU S.àr.l. 1 million euro for the misleading advertising of Glo Hyper X2 and Glo Hyper Air heated tobacco devices, which was done by placing advertisements on billboards and in film spots, and on the Glo and Amazon.it websites.

Glo Hyper X2 and Glo Hyper Air were not advertised in such a way as to provide, in a truthful and appropriate way for the consumer, the two main usage warnings, namely that these products are harmful to health, due to the nicotine in the tobacco sticks to be used necessarily with the devices, and that they are not intended for use by minors.

British American Tobacco Italia and Amazon EU therefore breached articles 20, 21 and 22 of the Consumer Code as they advertised Glo Hyper X2 and Glo Hyper Air only as simple electronic devices and mere design objects, focusing on the product’s aesthetics to attract consumers, believing that they could disregard their functionality (the consumption of tobacco involving the intake of nicotine) and the specific warnings necessary for their informed use by those parties for whom they are intended, which obviously do not include minors. This is a seriously misleading conduct such as to induce consumers to buy a product that poses a health risk and is prohibited for minors.

Rome, 14 February 2024

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<![CDATA[${title_entry}]]> http://en.agcm.it:443/en/media/press-releases/detail?id=892589f6-c1a8-44d1-bc01-1437f9a64c8c 2024-02-08T 08:00:00Z 2024-03-11T 11:35:47Z $con.sottocategoria According to the Authority, Poste Italiane has not made its entire network and post offices accessible to companies in direct competition with its subsidiary, PostePay, in the retail markets for electricity and natural gas. Together with the investigation, interim proceedings were also initiated.

The Italian Competition Authority has launched investigation proceedings against Poste Italiane to ascertain the existence of breaches of article 8, paragraph 2-quater of Law no. 287/1990.

Indeed, on the basis of this article, Poste Italiane should make the offices and the postal network (to which it has exclusive availability being the universal postal service provider) accessible to competitors of its subsidiary, PostePay, which uses them to market and promote Poste Energia offers in the electricity retail market.

According to some complaints, Poste Italiane did not make these assets or services accessible to some of PostePay’s competitors who recently requested them. In this way, it has given its subsidiary a significant competitive advantage, capable of irretrievably altering the competitive dynamics in a unique market context - characterised by the end of protected regimes in the supply of electricity and natural gas - in which active operators have strong incentives to attract customers from such protected regimes.

Together with the investigation, the Authority also initiated proceedings to adopt potential interim measures pursuant to article 14-bis of Law no. 287 of 1990, to restore a level playing field to the markets in question, which would have been distorted by the conduct being investigated.

Yesterday, officials from the Italian Competition Authority, aided by the Special Antitrust Unit of the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza), carried out inspections at the premises of the companies involved.

Rome, 8 February 2024

 

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<![CDATA[${title_entry}]]> http://en.agcm.it:443/en/media/press-releases/detail?id=bd0f6f0c-789f-4acd-9973-e8d14e6f131c 2024-01-24T 17:34:00Z 2024-03-01T 13:56:24Z $con.sottocategoria According to the survey on young consumers carried out by the Italian Competition Authority through the Skuola.net portal, on a sample of 2,000 people, we become consumers at an increasingly early age, but without adequate awareness of our rights: only 1 in 3 teenagers declare that they know the main pillars of the Consumer Code.

Young consumers but, often, unprepared to assert their rights. Today, people frequently buy online from a very early age, so much so that almost half of Italian teenagers (47%) have already run into after-sales problems, such as receiving a defective or non-conforming product. However, a few know exactly what to do in cases like these. A picture of a generation eager to grow, but still a bit immature from the point of view of consumer protection, is outlined by the survey on young consumers carried out by the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) through the Skuola.net portal, thanks to the accounts of 2,000 students between the ages of 11 and 18.

In order to help young consumers become aware of their rights, for three years now the Italian Competition Authority has been carrying out the #convienesaperlo information campaign and initiatives aimed directly at students, such as the #convienesaperlo (anche a scuola) 2.0 competition, linked to a Quiz Game on consumer rights developed in collaboration with the Skuola.net portal. There is time until 15 March 2024 to participate in the latest edition of the competition.

An analysis of the answers to the questionnaire submitted shows that only 1 in 3 youths say they are familiar with the only instrument that can really protect them, i.e. the Consumer Code, so almost all of them ask to know more about it. Even thanks to school: as many as 9 out of 10 are in favour of specific lessons on these topics.

When asking those directly concerned a series of questions on the Consumer Code, roughly widespread gaps emerged, especially on the duration of protections: only 15% are aware that the legal guarantee on any goods sold lasts 24 months, while only 26% know that you can withdraw from an online purchase free of charge within 14 days of its receipt.

Things go much better when it comes to knowing the procedures to activate the protections. Approximately two thirds of the young consumers surveyed (62%) know that, in the event of a product failure within the warranty period, it can be repaired or replaced at no additional cost. 59% are aware that, in such circumstances, they must first exclusively address the seller.

As expected, digital natives are even more knowledgeable, if the purchase takes place online. 68% know very well that, if the purchased product arrives at home not working, they have the right to send it back without having to bear the shipping costs, while only 34% know that, if they take the goods back to a physical store, things could go differently. However, shortcomings remain and young people are willing to be helped, right from school desks: 58% of respondents believe it is imperative to learn more about consumer rights, while 31% would like this opportunity to be offered on an optional basis. A sort of additional right, to be used during hours of civic education or at other times of school life. On the other hand, just 1 in 10 believes that a young person can learn consumer rights by himself.

“Our Authority believes in the importance of educating the new generations so that young consumers can become aware of their rights and their protection. For this reason, for several years now we have been carrying out activities that involve students who, by playing, learn about the tools to defend themselves in particular against scams, which are now widespread in online purchases”, says Roberto Rustichelli, Chairman of the Italian Competition Authority.

The first benefits of this activity carried out by the AGCM are already beginning to be seen since as, according to the survey, half of the young consumers interviewed know the Authority and, more importantly, know that any violations of consumer rights must be reported to it.

Rome, 24 January 2024

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