The defense of consumers from unfair commercial practices is in danger if four amendments to the European delegation law under discussion in the Senate are approved. Four photocopied and bipartisan amendments, signed by FdI, Lega, Fi and Pd and approved in commission, risk nullifying the powers of the market guarantor Authority in its daily battle to avoid aggressive or even unfair commercial practices practiced by companies and professionals in the customer comparisons. Let's see why.
Antitrust: amendments to reduce its powers
La delegation to the government for implementation and transposition of the regulatory acts of the European Union, deals with many subjects and ranges from finance, credit, agriculture and livestock. Article 4 is dedicated to the defense of consumers, a task carried out today by the Antitrust which receives reports, opens investigations and - if necessary - imposes sanctions. And right here the lobbying activity in Parliament started. In fact, the new law provides for the possibility of raising the penalties up to 4% of the turnover of companies or professionals who are found to be responsible for unfair commercial activities. Today the maximum limit that the Antitrust can use for violations of the consumer code is set at 5 million. Little, too little for giants – from credit to telecommunications, from energy to Big Tech – which boost their revenues precisely through daring commercial practices.
Here, the amendments limited the application of the 4% of turnover rule to cross-border cases only, i.e. those cases in which the abuses were committed by the same company in three different countries. A case that practically never occurred. Therefore, re-proposing this constraint effectively means canceling the potential deterrent represented by the strengthening of Antitrust powers with the 4% rule
Big Tech and privacy: a case study to understand the problem
To get a practical idea of what the amendment entails, passed a little secretly in a law with 17 all relevant articles, we can give the example of data on privacy. The new GDPR European regulation protects consumer data, even when they browse the Internet. Recently the Antitrust has fined Apple and Google for failing to comply with data protection rules and imposed the maximum possible fine: 5 million each, precisely, for each abuse found. For groups of this size – Apple's market capitalization exceeded 3 trillion in January, then fell back – it's a matter of pennies. The damage – and therefore the deterrent value – would have been different if it had been possible to apply the 4% rule on turnover (national or worldwide). But this is where the lobbying kicked in. For now, he seems to have the upper hand. But repentance, perhaps with government intervention at the right moment, is still possible.
