The Antitrust Authority concluded four investigative proceedings for unfair commercial practices in the marketing of its offers zero-cost car purchase (called "My Car No Cost", Spot & Go", "Golden Car" and "AutoNuovaGratis"), by imposing sanctions for a total amount of 1 million and 600 thousand euros: €1.200.000 to the company Vantage Group, € 200.000 a Publicly, € 100.000 a Golden Car and €100.000 ad Entity Holding Italy.
According to the Authority's investigation, the four operators violated the articles 20, 21 and 22 of the Consumer Code, spreading on their respective websites misleading information in the promotion of their commercial offers. The promises relating to the possibility of buying a car "at no cost" or greatly reduced, on the one hand, exposed consumers to immediate disbursements at the time of accepting the offer with the prospect of recovering them through monthly repayments linked to a real advertising activity carried out through the automobile.
"In reality, the preliminary evidence made it possible to ascertain - specifies the Authority - that the commercial offers were not true". In practice, the real functioning of the system was hidden from consumers, which was not supported by effective profitability of the advertising activity but was based almost exclusively on the availability of the paid entrance fees, and was therefore not able to honour, if not for a limited period of time, the promise to members of the proposed installment repayments".
With regard to Vantage Group, the Authority also ascertained an aggressive commercial practice in violation of the articles 24 and 25 of the Consumer Code, relating to lack of maintenance of the reimbursement commitments assumed towards consumers who had adhered to the commercial offer My Car No Cost.
