Gianni & Origoni May 12, 2020 - Italy COVID-19 and Antitrust: The Measures Adopted by the Italian Competition Authority
Footnotes: 1 The ICA Communication can be accessed at this link (Italian text only). 2 The Communication on the Temporary Framework is accessible at this link. 3 The ECN Statement can be viewed at the following link. 4 International Competition Network, Competition during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, 8 April 2020, at this link. 5 See Communication, §13, as well as the ICA press release of 24th April 2020 (at this link). 6 Taking inspiration from §12 of the Temporary Framework, the ICA specifies that third parties could be entrusted with the tasks to: i) coordinate joint transport and distribution of input materials; ii) identify medicines, medical devices or food supplies for which there are risks of shortages; ii) share aggregate supply gap information, and request participating undertakings, on an individual basis and without sharing that information with competitors, to indicate whether they can fill the supply gap to meet demand. 7 For example, forms of cooperation aimed at the reorganisation of an entire production sector with the prospect of increasing and optimising production and that “inevitably require an exchange of disaggregated and sensitive information and a degree of coordination between undertakings that in ‘normal’ times would certainly be problematic” (ICA Communication, §§15-16). 8 For this purpose, the ICA has dedicated an e-mail address to inquiries about the compatibility of specific cooperation projects with competition law ([email protected]). 9 Indeed, the Temporary Framework allows the Commission to publish, on a temporary and exceptional basis, comfort letters in relation to individual cooperation projects. 10 See ICA Communication, §19. The national legal framework is set by Law 10th October 1990, no. 287 (O.J. No. 240 of 13.10.1990). 11 Law Decree, 17th March 2020, No. 18, Measures to strengthen the national health service and provide economic support for families, workers and businesses connected to the COVID-19 epidemiological emergency (O.J. No. 70, 17.3.2020), converted by Law 24th April 2020, No. 27 (O.J. No. 110, 29.4.2020). The suspension, initially provided for until 15th April 2020, was subsequently extended to 15th May 2020 by Article 37 of Law Decree No. 23 of 8th April 2020 (O.J. No. 94 of 8.4.2020). 12 The Communication is available at this link. 13 In this respect, the ICA has specified that the period of suspension will not be taken into account for the calculation of interest and surcharges for penalties whose payments’ deadline expired before 23rd February 2020. 14 See the proceedings initiated against: farmacocoronavirus.it (injunction of 17th March blocking the access to the portal and decision of 16th April confirming the precautionary measures, referred to in Bulletin no. 18/2020, at this link), Carlita Shop (injunction of 22nd March to remove references to the preventive effectiveness of the products and measure of 8th April acknowledging compliance with precautionary measures), Rapid Test Covid-19 (injunction of 22nd March to prohibit access to the website), OxyStore (injunction of 27th March removing the references to the preventive effectiveness of the products and decision of 8th April acknowledging compliance with precautionary measures), Farmaciamaschile.it (injunction of 27th March to prohibit access to the website and initiation of the investigation procedure referred to in Bulletin no. 17/2020, at this link), Farmacia-generica.it (injunction of 27th March prohibiting access to the website, order confirming the precautionary measures of 22nd April and, finally, order initiating the investigation procedure) and TigerShop (injunction of 8th April). 15 See press release of 21st April 2020, concerning Google, Apple, Italiaonline, Microsoft, Yahoo, Mozilla and DuckDuckGo. 16 After having sent requests for information to the main online sales platforms (see press release of 27th February at the following link), the Authority launched investigations against: Amazon and eBay on 12th March 2020 (referred to in the following press release), Wish on 3rd April 2020 (investigation closed without applying any measure, with decision of 8th April 2020) and, finally, the Vova.com platform on 29th April 2020 (referred to in the following press release). 17 See, in this regard, the injunction adopted on 22nd March 2020 against the GoFundMe donation platform. 18 See the investigation started on 2nd April 2020 against A.P. Risarcimento e Consulenza S.r.l. at the following link. 19 See the investigation launched on 17th April against private health care facilities that advertised tests for Covid-19, at this link. 20 See the investigation launched on 7th May 2020 (at the following link) against several supermarkets chains, including Carrefour Italia S.p.A., MD S.p.A., Lidl S.p.A., Eurospin S.p.A., as well as some Conad and Coop cooperatives Read full article at: http://www.gop.it/doc_covid/104.pdf |