LEAR’s activity 2018: proceedings before the ICA

This year was another great year for Lear’s activity. We have assisted several firms in nine proceedings before the Italian Competition Authority for alleged breaches of antitrust legislation in different markets, such as telecommunication, transport and electricity.

Below, a summary of the proceedings we have been working on.

Abuse of dominance

ENEL: alleged abuse of dominance in the retail electricity market. Lear proved that the practices identified by the ICA could not foreclose Enel’s rivals in the downstream market.

SIAE: abuse of dominance in the Italian copyright sector. Lear has shown that the existing regulatory setup was the one that maximized efficiencies while keeping universal copyright protection to which the departure advocated by the ICA would have been detrimental.

OPEN FIBER: alleged abuse of dominance in the fixed ultrabroadband market. Lear is assisting Open Fiber, the complainant, in showing the anti-competitive effects of TIM’s conduct.

 MOBY/CIN: alleged abuse of dominance in the market for maritime freight transport. Lear highlighted the weaknesses of the ICA’s approach to define the relevant market and showed that there was no evidence of a foreclosing practice.

Horizontal agreements

Opel Finance and RCI Banque: alleged agreement in the market for financial services for the purchase of motor vehicles. Lear has shown that information exchanged between the parties could not enable coordination due to lack of competition between them and to product differentiation.

WIND TRE: alleged horizontal agreement in the telecom sector. Lear has proved that the conducts that the ICA considers the result of coordination are in fact the result of independent and rational choices by the telecom operators.

Grifols: alleged anticompetitive agreement in the market for plasma derivatives. Lear has shown that the joint bidding by Grifols and Kedrion, under the ICA’s scrutiny, was not anticompetitive, but rather improved the welfare of the Italian Healthcare System.

Taxi cooperative 3570: non-compete agreements between taxi drivers and cabs’ dispatching systems. Lear showed that the non-compete clauses do not unduly limit competition for taxi drivers’ affiliation.

Mergers

2i Rete Gas: merger in the natural gas sector. Lear has quantified the efficiencies brought about by the merger and evaluated the market and regulatory mechanisms that would ensure that efficiencies are passed on to consumers.

For more details on our engagements here