The Antitrust against Autostrade per l'Italia (Aspi). Again. Last March, the Competition and Market Authority had imposed a fine of 5 million on Aspi euros, requiring it to reduce the amount of tolls on sections subject to traffic problems due to the maintenance work that the company is carrying out.
Autostrade per l'Italia, concessionaire for the management and maintenance of over three thousand km of motorway network in our country which passed from Benetton management to the Cdp-Fondi orbit, however ignored the obligation, leaving the prices unchanged. After waiting in vain for four months, the Authority has therefore decided to react, opening up a non-compliance proceeding to the warning requiring the company to "stop the unfair practice ascertained in March 2021, given that ASPI has not reduced the cost of the toll and/or has not adopted any procedure to recognize tariff concessions and reimbursements for the motorway sections in which they verify significant criticalities in the road system due to extraordinary works for the safety of the infrastructures which are affected by serious deficiencies in management and maintenance".
Last March, at the end of the investigation, the Antitrust had fined Autostrade 5 million euros, the legal maximum, for the no toll reduction on the most congested motorways such as the A/16 Naples/Canosa, the A/14 Bologna/Taranto, the A/26 Genova Voltri-Gravellona Toce and, for the parts within its competence, the A/7 Milano-Serravalle - Genoa, A/10 Genoa-Savona-Ventimiglia and the A/12 Genoa-Rosignano, in violation of articles 20, 22, 24 and 25 of the Consumer Code. "In these stretches - underlines the Antitrust - there were significant reductions in the traffic lanes and/or specific limitations on the maximum permitted speed, with consequent inconvenience not only for consumers but also for hauliers, in terms of queues, slowdowns and a significant increase in journey times.
It didn't take long to arrive Aspi's reply, which claims for its part that it has "already activated toll reductions or cancellations in 2020 in favor of users on sections subject to significant inconvenience due to maintenance work, for a total of 77 million euros of lower revenues in the 2020 period -21”. According to Autostrade, the sections subject to reductions "include, moreover, precisely those reported at the time by the Antitrust (where there were lane reductions, later resolved, imposed by the judicial authority), whose proceedings concern events that are not current, but occurred between December 2019 and January 2020”. Aspi also appeals to the recent decision of the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, which put pen to paper that "the compliances ordered by the Antitrust towards the company, first and foremost the a priori definition of a shared system of criteria for the adoption of concessions, have been determined making it impossible to allow their fulfilment”. Nevertheless, the concessionary company has formulated a concrete proposal of commitments, also planning and developing the first “toll cashback” system, whose purpose is to restore users in the event of delays,
