Italy: Adopted Draft Annual Law for Competition by Italian Council of Ministers including Unilateral conduct measures

The Annual Competition Law 2021 is approved by the Italian Council of Ministers on 4 November 2021 and will now be introduced in the Italian Parliament for approval. The proposals enhance the powers of the ICA as it is given the possibility to issue requests for information. Moreover, the proposal suggests a presumption of economic dependence when a company has a commercial relationship with a digital platform that offers intermediation services that are decisive for reaching end-users or suppliers. Specifically, if a company relies on intermediation services provided by a digital platform that significantly influences the reach of customers or suppliers due to factors like network effects or data availability, it will be presumed that the company is dependent on the platform. This presumption will make it easier for the ICA and complainants to attribute abusive behaviour to these platforms. Additionally, the law outlines a non-exhaustive list of actions that can be considered abusive. These include: not providing sufficient information or data about the extent or quality of the service offered, demanding unfair unilateral benefits without justified reasons based on the nature of the activity, engaging in practices that impede or obstruct the use of alternative service providers, requesting unwarranted unilateral services without justification based on the nature of the activity, and employing practices that impede or obstruct the use of alternative suppliers for the same service.