Competition Authority (Italy)

Headquarters of the competition authority at 6 Piazza Giusppe Verdi in Rome

The Autorità garante della concorrenza e del mercato , also known as Antitrust or AGCM , is Italy's national competition authority .

It was founded by Law No. 287/1990 ( legge a tutela della concorrenza e del mercato italiana ) and began its work exactly a century after the Sherman Antitrust Act (USA). The impetus for its establishment came from the European Community (now the EU).

This can also be seen from the fact that Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (1957, known in Italy as 'Trattati di Roma' (Treaty of Rome) or 'TFUE') have been translated almost literally into Italian; likewise the principi del Regolamento CEE sulle concentrazioni tra imprese (n. 2059/1993) (for example: principles of the EC regulation on the control of company mergers).

In addition, Article 1 of Law n. 287/1990 contains the rare (perhaps unique in Italy) provision that the interpretation of the law is carried out according to the principles of Community law . A similar provision is contained in the UK Competition Act 1999 .

tasks

The authority has the following tasks:

Prevention of abuse of a dominant position;
Monitoring agreements and / or cartels that affect free competition;
Control of corporate mergers or acquisitions that exceed a certain value;
Consumer protection in the field of unfair commercial practices and unfair and misleading advertising;
Assessment and sanctioning of cases of conflict of interest among members of the government.

Powers

The agency can conduct investigations or fact-finding investigations . These can lead to warnings, fines or other administrative sanctions. In cases of alleged violations of competition rules, fines can amount to up to 10 percent of sales. In the event of violations of the Consumer Protection Act, the authority can impose fines of up to € 500,000. If the authority considers a situation to be particularly urgent, it can take further temporary measures to protect the general public. The competition authority can use the Guardia di Finanza for its investigations . Appeals against measures taken by the authority can be lodged with the competent administrative court (TAR).

More functions

The Antitrust Authority submits an annual report to the Italian Prime Minister on the application of competition law in Italy. In addition, the authority can issue opinions on legal norms on market regulation. The AGCM can also report any distortions of competition to parliament, the government and local authorities. Together with the other authorities of the European Union, the ACGM is part of the " EU competition authorities ". On the basis of EC regulation 1/2003, they have the option of coordinating directly with the EU Commission .

President of the AGCM

1990-1994: Francesco Saja
1994-1997: Giuliano Amato
1998-2005: Giuseppe Tesauro
2005–2011: Antonio Catricalà
since November 29, 2011: Giovanni Pitruzzella

Web links

ACGM homepage