competitionlaw

Consistently with its decisional practice, the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has confirmed that under the Italian Competition Act (Act 287/90) the acquisition of titles conferring the right to perform economic activities is a concentration and, accordingly, has to be notified to the ICA for the statutory competition assessment (AGCM, decision n. 19479, case C7708, Alitalia/Ramo di Azienda di Gandalf, Boll. 5/2009). In 2004 Alitalia purchased a number of assets from the Gandalf, an minor Italian airline which had gone out of business some time before. These assets included the authorization for the provision of air transport services granted by the Italian aviation regulator, the registered trademark “Gandald Airlines” with the logo “G”, three pair of slots at the airport of Linate in Milan and some other items. Believing that the purchase of assets from a firm no longer active in the marketplace did not amount to a concentration for the purpose of the Act 287/90, Alitalia did not...

Last year the European Commission released the Community guidelines on State aid for railway undertakings ([2008] OJEC C 184/07). The aim pursued by the Commission with the Guidelines is to provide guidance on the EC compatibility of aids to railway undertakings. Public financial support is an important source of funding for the rail industry and the EC legal regime for public financial support to this sector is quite complex. It is understood that a sound regulation of the financial relationships between states and railway undertakings is desirable as that should prevent distortions of intra-mode and inter-mode competition. To this end, by the Guidelines the Commission clarifies its position on the interpretation and application of Articles 73 and 87 EC and of other relevant instruments to aids to railway undertakings. The Guidelines also constitute an implementation of the Commission’s 2005 Action Plan aimed at the modernization of state aid policy. In sum, the Commission intends...

The Italian Competition Authority has unconditionally cleared the transaction by which Deutsche Bahn, the German national railway undertaking has acquired the control of NordCargo, an Italian railway undertakings operating in the field of freight transport (AGCM, decision 19285,11 December 2008,case C9819, Deutsche Bahn/NordCargo , Bollettino 47/2008). The concentration affects two relevant markets: the market for freight land transport and the market for the provision of rail traction. The market for freight land transport includes train operators and other carriers such as intermodal and road operators. To determine the geographical scope of this market, the ICA applies the classical POD methodology based on pairs of points of origin and destination, which can be also regrouped, to make things easier, around a number of wider corridors. The market for the provision of rail traction is constituted by licensed railway undertakings in the meaning of Directive 91/440 EC directive, which...