competitionlaw

The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has opened an Article 102 TFEU investigation against Monte Titoli Spa (MT) in the case A506 Monte Titoli-Servizio di post-trading (Monte Titoli) . The ICA feared that MT breached competition by carrying out anti-competitive foreclosing and discriminatory pricing policies. The parties and the relevant regulatory framework MT was a vertically integrated financial service provider wholly owned by the Italian Stock Exchange (Borsa Italiana). The antitrust investigation, the ICA started following the receipt of complaint filed by MT’s competitors, targets the pricing policies put in place by MT since 2016. MT is the only entity licensed by the Italian financial regulators to provide the services of settlement and centralized administration of securities as Central Security Depositary (CSD). Moreover, MT joined the Target 2 Securities (T2S) platform developed under the auspices of the European Central Bank. As a result, MT is the only nation

The Italian Competition Authority targets abusive practices in the rail market sector The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has opened an Article 102 TFEU investigation against the national rail incumbent in the case A 519 Servizio di Trasporto Pubblico Ferroviario nel Veneto ( Veneto Rail Public Transport Network ). The regulatory background The EU Regulation EC 1370/2007 lays down that the contract for the provision of rail public transport services are awarded by means of tender competitive procedure or alternatively they can be awarded to an in-house supplier. The maximum length of the contracts is fixed in 10 years though it can be prolonged by further 5 years. Following the amendments brought by the Regulation EU 2238/2016 to the EU Regulation EC 1370/2007, starting from 2023 the suppliers of rail public transport services will to be selected through competitive tender procedures. In addition to that, Directive 2012/34/EU lays down the principles of accounting se

The Italian Competition Authority targets an RPM concerning online sales of stoves The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has closed by a commitment decision an antitrust investigation into allegedly anticompetitive restraints affecting the online markets for the commercialization of stoves [1] . The restrictive practices considered by the ICA in Stove online sales restraints were resale price maintenance (RPM) and territorial restriction arrangements. The facts of the case The target of the ICA investigation was the commercial policies adopted by Cadel Srl (Cadel) and MCZ Group Spa (MCZ), which belonged to Zanette Group Spa (ZG), in relation to the online distribution channel. MCZ was a European major producer of biomass heaters, while Cadel was a producer of wood stoves and pallet stoves. The ICA started its investigation following the receipt of a complaint lodged by an online distributor. The relevant product market affected by the commercial policies of Cadel and