The echo of the sting Antitrust on maxi-bills from large electricity and gas operators is still very much alive when John Pitruzzella starts reading, Wednesday morning in the Senate, its annual report on the activity carried out in 2015 as a competition guarantor. And he launches a new watchword which is also a key to understanding the work of the Antitrust in recent times: "Increase innovation and competition - says the president of the guarantee body - to reduce social inequalities" and be able to face the "great transformation" of the globalized economy, thus overcoming the crisis that has gripped Italy and Europe since 2008.
Of course, the report on the 504 million fines imposed on groups and associations, large and small, online and offline, which last year abused competition or embarked on commercial practices that harmed consumers; but the cut that Pitruzzella wanted to give was more aimed at the social sphere and at the fact that if the excess of inequalities was one of the triggering causes of the crisis, as the Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz recalls, then the strengthening of the Antitrust action and the promotion of innovation are the antidotes to disease and the flywheel to relaunch more equitable growth.
And therefore: yes to the new fiber optic network that Enel Open Fiber (with Vodafone and Wind) e Telecom Italy they have undertaken to implement and no to "cross-subsidies". Watch out for concentrations, To placards on public tenders and Internet that "it is not the realm of harmony and freedom, but the terrain of the new conflicts of the XNUMXst century". Relentless fight against rents "which are a brake on innovation and contribute to making the economy stagnant and increasing inequalities". Is Local public transport more competitive and maximum attention toe-commerceand which offers new opportunities but produces new pitfalls for consumers”. Let's see which ones, in more detail.
THE SANCTIONS
Last year and in the first 5 months of 2016, the Antitrust sanctioned for 433 million abuses of competition and for others 71 million interventions regarding unfair commercial practices. In the previous 18 months (January 2014-June 2015) they had been respectively equal to 266 and 30 million with an increase of 63% in the first case and 137% in the second. A clear indication of the fact that, while collaborating in harmony with the other sector Authorities, theAntitrust is now leading the way: this was seen in the maxi penalties for telephone operators as well as for energy companies fined for untruthful advertising, inadequate and/or aggressive billing.
ULTRA BROADBAND AND FIBER NETWORK
The Antitrust will ensure that competition is respected in the new fiber telecommunications networks and that no one benefits through "some form of cross-subsidy", Pitruzzella wanted to underline. The old copper network, in essence, is at its sunset and “the way has been paved for competition based on innovation. We are living in a phase characterized by considerable dynamism. A new non-vertically integrated operator has been born which aims to build a vast fiber network (Enel Open Fiber) and which has announced investments of 2,5 billion euros”. On the other hand, Telecom has launched "an extensive investment plan" in fiber optic networks (amounting to 3,6 billion). In this scenario "the Competition Authority continues to monitor to ensure that this new dynamism is based on competition that produces innovation and that no actor (not even new ones) seeks advantages by exploiting some form of cross-subsidy". "The clear reference is to Enel", commented the president of Telecom Italia Giuseppe Recchi.
The positive impact of the fiber infrastructure will fluctuate between 7 and 23 percent on the productivity of micro-enterprises alone, according to the Authority's estimates.
THE GIANTS OF THE WEB
Large search platforms often impose restrictive clauses on the Internet. And it is against these that they were fined Booking and Expedia. Also Amazon is ended up in the crosshairs because it was not clear what the identity of the seller was so that the consumer could not understand who to possibly blame in the event of a complaint. These cases were cited by Pitruzzella to underline how, following the intervention of the Antitrust, the big companies have adapted to the requests and this has improved the competition with the emergence of new operators and proposals. As if to say that sanctions are fundamental but then produce wider and longer-lasting consequences. In this sense, the mention of the reorganization initiated by Telecom Italy to catch up on the front of full equality of access to the network by its competitors. A process, however, that the guarantor "is monitoring very carefully".
INNOVATION AND COMPETITION
Pitruzzella cited the cases of Uber and AirBnb to demonstrate that it is essentially useless to stop the avalanche of the sharing economy. While waiting for the regulations to be adapted, it is still possible to avoid formal stiffening with a constitutionally oriented interpretation: for example, in the case of Uber by avoiding requiring the return to the depot before taking on board each new passenger: In the case of AirBnb, the guarantor appealed to the Tar against the legislation of the Lazio Region which would paralyze this type of activity.
ENERGY AREA
Just as the process of the Competition Law has resumed, which should ratify the full liberalization of the electricity and gas market from 1 January 2018 (but there is already talk of a postponement of 6 months) the Antitrust has fined the major operators for unfair commercial practices and violation of consumer rights: Acea, Edison, Enel, Eni, Hera, Gdf Suez, Green Network and Beetwin. The latest wave of fines came a few days ago (14,5 million overall for the first four operators mentioned). Acea has announced an appeal to the Tar, Enel has minimized the number of irregularities in relation to the 250 million bills issued annually. But the consumer associations (Adoc, Assoutenti, Casa del Consumatore, Codici, Federconsumatori, Lega Consumatori and Unc) which a few days ago had left the table of the Energy Authority in protest precisely for the management of the maxi-adjustments, are rejoicing.
PUBLIC TENDERS AND CONCENTRATIONS
About 114 million fine for the cartel of companies that operated on consip tenders for the assignment of services cleaning in schools. This is the most sensational case. But on the issue of tenders, the Antitrust fights insistently both for the impact on public spending and for the disservice to citizens. Also worthy of mention is the very recent ruling on the cartel of sales-refreshment companies through vending machines: over 100 million fine which also involved the trade association Trust. The latter announced an appeal to the Tar.
The Authority also recalled the fine of 66 million that affected the agreement between Football League and Infont which altered the tender for TV rights to Serie A.
MADIA REFORM AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Minister Madia's reform, (awaiting the go-ahead for the decree on the so-called "crafty tag-testers"), said Pitruzzella, "is in full harmony with the suggestions of the Antitrust and gives life, with the implementing legislative decrees, to a of the most important processes of administrative reform in Italian history".
ANNUAL COMPETITION ACT
Pitruzzella wanted to look at the "glass half full", referring to the annual law on competition and the approval process which is shared in the Chamber. But he also warned that for the next annual law it will be necessary to eliminate "those regulatory privileges that still exist and that in some sectors, from pharmacies, concessions, transportation, retail trade, regulated professions, they block competition and create intolerable forms of inequality".
“The text – Pitruzzella refers to the one currently under approval – still contains relevant pro-competitive rules, such as the one concerning the full liberalization of the retail energy market. A rapid approval of the law would make it possible to start the process for the presentation of a new bill in order to implement the annual frequency envisaged by the legislator for interventions to promote competition".
