THE CIVIL COURT OF MILAN DISMISSES A DAMAGES CLAIM CONCERNING THE MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS MARKET

On 15 September 2022, the Civil Court of Milan rejected in its entirety a claim brought by Iliad, seeking compensation for the damages allegedly caused by a competitor’s unfair market conduct, and condemned the claimant to pay the litigation expenses. The full judgement was issued in April 2023.

Iliad has been active in the Italian mobile telecommunications market since May 2018 and claimed that it lost clients to one of its rivals due to the latter’s unfair commercial practices, including misleading promotional campaigns specifically directed to Iliad’s clients. The Court found that no credible causal link between the conduct and the damages claimed was demonstrated; in particular, Iliad did not show that there was a link between the allegedly unfair content of the promotional messages and its clients’ decision to change operator. Lear assisted the defendant throughout the proceedings, carrying out analyses aimed at showing that the claimant’s damages quantification was not supported by either economic theory or empirical evidence.