Italian Competition Authority
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The Italian Competition Authority ( it, Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, AGCM) is the
competition regulator A competition regulator is the institution that oversees the functioning of the markets. And the Law in which it takes cognizance of situations having any type of impediments and distortions on the markets and correct them is the competition law ...
in Italy. It is an Italian quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization established on the basis of Law №287 of 10 October 1990. As of 2004, the Italian Competition Authority has also been in charge of enforcing laws against conflicts of interest for Holders of Public Office. As the Italian competition regulator, the Authority has the task of enforcing both Italian and European consumer protection laws. It is financed by annual allocations through a special chapter of the Ministry of Economic Development's budget. The Financial Law of 2006 introduced partial self-financing: ''AGCM'' has full control over the management of these funds for its own operations. An annual report is presented to the President of the Council of Ministers of Italy.


Duties

The main duties of the authority are: * Vigilance against abuses from market dominance. * Vigilance against
cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...
s that may prejudice or restrict fair
competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, ind ...
(
Anti-competitive practices Anti-competitive practices are business or government practices that prevent or reduce competition in a market. Antitrust laws differ among state and federal laws to ensure businesses do not engage in competitive practices that harm other, usuall ...
). * Vigilance on
takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...
s to check concentration ratio and verify
market impact In financial markets, market impact is the effect that a market participant has when it buys or sells an asset. It is the extent to which the buying or selling moves the price against the buyer or seller, i.e., upward when buying and downward when ...
. *
Consumer protection Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...
, against unfair trade practices and
false advertising False advertising is defined as the act of publishing, transmitting, or otherwise publicly circulating an advertisement containing a false claim, or statement, made intentionally (or recklessly) to promote the sale of property, goods, or servic ...
. * Supervise and penalize the cases of
conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
regarding members of
Government of Italy The government of Italy is in the form of a democratic republic, and was established by a constitution in 1948. It consists of legislative, executive, and judicial subdivisions, as well as a Head of State, or President. The Italian Constituti ...
.


Powers

The Authority in such cases may conduct investigations or hearings, even with the
Guardia di Finanza The ''Guardia di Finanza'' (G. di F. or GdF) () (English: literal: ''Guard of Finance'', paraphrased: ''Financial Police'' or ''Financial Guard'') is an Italian law enforcement agency under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance. ...
at his disposal, which may result in a warning or an administrative penalty.


Notable cases

In 2021, the Authority fined
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
1.13 billion euros ($1.28 billion) for alleged abuse of market dominance in intermediation services on marketplaces to favour the adoption of its own logistics service - Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) - by sellers active on Amazon.it.


Presidents

The Italian Competition Authority is led by a Presidents. In its history the following individuals have held this function: * Francesco Saja (7 November 1990 – 31 July 1994) *
Giuliano Amato Giuliano Amato (; born 13 May 1938) is an Italian politician who twice served as Prime Minister of Italy, first from 1992 to 1993 and again from 2000 to 2001. Later, he was Vice President of the Convention on the Future of Europe that drafted t ...
(11 November 1994 – 31 December 1997) * Giuseppe Tesauro (12 March 1998 – 16 February 2005) * Antonio Catricalà (1 March 2005 – 16 November 2011) * Giovanni Pitruzzella (29 November 2011 – 30 September 2018) * Roberto Rustichelli (since 2018)


References


External links

*
''AGCM'' commission hearings
are available on Radio Radicale website (in Italian). Government agencies established in 1990 1990 establishments in Italy Competition regulators Regulation in Italy Consumer organisations in Italy {{Italy-org-stub