Antitrust: fine of over 11 million to Poste for abuse of economic dependence

The Italian Antitrust Authority has fined Poste Italiane for over 11 million euros for abuse of economic dependence. According to the Antitrust Authority, “Poste Italiane has imposed unjustifiably burdensome clauses in the contracts signed in 2012 and 2013, and in force until June 2017, with Soluzioni Srl, a company that for many years has carried out, on behalf of Poste Italiane, the mail distribution and collection service in the city of Naples.

The accusation

In particular, according to a note from the Authority, “the company has adopted a set of unjustifiably burdensome contractual conditions and has engaged in abusive conduct that has produced a substantial imbalance in the negotiation relationship with Solutions, forced, among other things, to bear the prohibition of joint transport and delivery of Poste Italiane and third party products, as well as to allow Poste to reduce the minimum quantities at will and to change the type of products.

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In addition, Solutions was forced to perform additional services not provided for in the contract, which were, moreover, unpaid “. According to the Antitrust, therefore, “Poste Italiane has hindered the proper conduct of the competitive game in the reference market, because with its abusive conduct it has excluded an operator who could have either lent its business in favor of alternative postal operators or constituted a potential competitive constraint at the local level “.

“Great news. Finally a substantial sanction that hopefully will serve as a warning to all large companies that abuse their dominant position either in the market or in the context of a negotiation relationship, as in this case, by subjecting the weaker subject to burdensome, vexatious clauses, causing an excessive imbalance of rights and obligations “. Thus Massimiliano Dona, president of the National Consumers Union, commenting on the 11 million euro fine. “We have always asked to remove the ceiling on the fines of all the Authorities and to provide that the penalties are always, by law, higher than the illegal gain, otherwise they can never have any deterrent effect. But our repeated appeal, which we will resubmit, once again, in the form of observations to the next competition law, has so far remained unheard ”, concludes Dona.