Abstract:

This article intends to highlight the main developments and trends of the Italian Competition Authority’s enforcement activities in the period between January 2016 and May 2017. The analysis of the Authority’s cartel enforcement has revealed two distinct trends: on the one hand, the Authority is focusing its enforcement activity towards the most serious distortions of competition, with an ensuing sharp increase in fines, especially in cases involving single-product companies; and, on the other, the Authority is paying a special attention to safeguarding defence rights and due process guarantees.  As far as unilateral conducts are concerned, the Authority has focused its enforcement on excessive prices: a somewhat complex and controversial hypothesis of abuse in view of its regulatory nature which needs to be handled carefully. As far as merger control is concerned, the article stresses the scarcity of the Authority’s interventions which has once again highlighted the inadequacy of the Italian merger control regime, which actually prevents the Authority from monitoring developments and evolutions of the markets.

Keywords: