On August 5, 2022, the Italian Parliament adopted Law No. 118, the “2021 Annual Competition Law” (the “ACL”). The ACL, which will enter into force on August 27, 2022, amends the Italian Competition Law (Law No. 287/90) in various respects.

On June 21, 2022, the Italian Competition Authority (the “ICA”) closed its investigation pursuant to Article 102 TFEU into the conduct of the incumbent providers of the local public transport service by road in the Tuscany Region (the “Region”), which jointly formed the ONE Scarl consortium (“ONE”).

In a decision published on June 13, 2022, the ICA cleared the acquisition of 51% of the share capital of Press-Di Distribuzione Stampa e Multimedia S.r.l. (“Press-Di” or the “Target”) by Artoni Group S.p.A. (“Artoni”) and SHR S.r.l. (“SHR” and, jointly, the “Parties”). As a result, the Parties acquired joint control over the Target together with the seller Mondadori Media S.p.A. (the “Transaction”).[1]

On June 9, 2022, the Council of State upheld appeals submitted by Media Partners & Silva Limited and MP Silva S.r.l. (jointly, “MP Silva”), by partially dismissing bid-rigging fines imposed by the ICA for the assignment of broadcasting rights for football matches in countries other than Italy.[1]

On May 17, 2022, the Italian Competition Authority (the “ICA”) imposed a fine of €3,501,020 on Leadiant Biosciences Ltd. and Essetfin S.p.A. (jointly “Leadiant”) for violating Article 102 TFEU by charging excessive prices for the sale to the Italian National Health System (the Sistema Sanitario Nazionale or “SSN”) of a drug used for the treatment of Cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis (“CTX”), a rare condition that affects the human body’s ability to metabolize cholesterols.[1]

On May 10, 2022, the ICA accepted and made binding the commitments offered by the parties in an investigation concerning an alleged exchange of information in the direct sales of motor vehicle insurance policies. The alleged exchange took place between Italy’s leading companies offering price-comparison services (the “Comparators”) and 13 insurance companies (the “Insurance Companies”) and intermediaries (the “Intermediaries”; jointly, the “Parties”).[1]

On April 11, 2022,[1] the TAR Lazio annulled an ICA decision finding that Telecom Italia S.p.A. (“Tim”) had infringed Article 102 TFEU for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the market for Short Message Service (“SMS”) termination (the “Decision”).[2] The Court followed the same reasoning as that set out in its September 2021 judgment, in which it overturned the €5.7 million fine imposed by the ICA on Vodafone Italia S.p.A. (“Vodafone”) in a parallel decision.