Antitrust: millionaire fines for Edison and Wind Tre

Maxi multer for two large Italian companies. In its latest bulletin, the Antitrust reported the offenses committed by Edison and Wind Tre and the related pecuniary sanctions that will have to be paid.

Edison Energia was fined 3.8 million euros for the unfair business practice. This is the fine imposed by the Antitrust at the end of a long proceeding with which it sanctioned the lack of “transparency and completeness” of the economic supply conditions for the online promotion and sale of energy and gas supply services provided on the free market . This is what we read in the Antitrust bulletin today. The “Edison Sweet” campaign (in the gas, electricity and electricity and gas versions) ended up in the sights, essentially centered on emphasizing the economic benefits promised to consumers and, in particular, on the size of the discount (40%) applicable to the energy component (whose value was not always indicated at the same time) and on the payment of variable bonuses according to the type of offer subscribed but without correctly informing consumers, in a complete way, about the various price components. Similar criticalities were also found for the “Edison Worl” and “Edison Fixed Price 12” offers.

The Authority which also preliminarily assumed the opinions of the Communications Regulatory Authority and Arera. The first underlined how «the Internet and the television medium are suitable tools for significantly influencing the implementation of the commercial practice» object of the opinion; the second noted how “the provisions of the Code of Commercial Conduct expressly prescribe the obligation for the seller to apply to the end customer amounts previously communicated and determined according to these criteria, providing specific and adequate feedback on the costs and considerations relating to the offer also within the promotional material”.

Even the telephone company Wind Tre ended up in the crosshairs of the Antitrust, which imposed a fine of 5 million euros on the telephone operator for “having automatically activated an additional paid service for its customers who hold a prepaid “voice and internet” SIM card ».

In particular, according to the Antitrust Bulletin, Wind Tre has increased the monthly cost of the users’ tariff plan by at least 2 euro in exchange for the offer of additional Giga (in a variable amount depending on the starting tariff plan) without the latter having expressed any prior consent in this regard.

«The conduct adopted by Wind Tre is, therefore, that of having increased the available Giga and the monthly cost of the tariff plan of some “mobile” customers, communicating it as if it were a unilateral contractual modification and at the same time providing, in addition to the right to withdraw from the contract/change operator contemplated by the aforementioned provision, also the possibility for the user to maintain the original offer in out-out mode, refusing the modification via SMS”.

But the user not interested in the paid Giga increase could, “only by implementing an active behavior, expressly refuse the additional service and the related additional charge”, explains the Authority which for this reason asked the Authority for an opinion for the Guarantees in Communications which underlined as in fact “the activation of the service that offers additional Giga and the related additional charge with respect to the main tariff plan of the consumer user, take place automatically without the prior and express consent of the latter”.