Italian Competition Law Update - New settlement procedure

The 2021 Annual Law on Market and Competition (Law No 118/2022) has made significant changes to the Italian Competition Law (Law No 287/1990, the "ICL"). In this post, we focus on the new settlement procedure for behavioural cases (i.e., cartels, anticompetitive agreements and abuse of dominance cases). 

Key takeaways

• A new settlement procedure will enable companies to enter into settlement agreements with the Italian Competition Authority ("ICA") in behavioural cases.
• The ICA will adopt procedural guidelines which will indicate the possible reduction in fines for settling parties.

What you need to know

The new settlement procedure will enable companies which have participated in an allegedly anticompetitive agreement or practice or which have allegedly abused their dominant position to enter into a settlement agreement with the ICA. 

The ICA may set a deadline for companies under investigation to indicate their willingness to participate in settlement discussions. During the settlement discussions, the ICA may inform interested parties of:

• the concerns identified by the ICA;
• the evidence the ICA has;
• non-confidential versions of specific accessible documents in the file; and
• the range of potential fines.

If the outcome of the discussions with the interested parties is favourable, the ICA may set a further deadline by which the parties should submit settlement proposals reflecting the discussions with the ICA and acknowledging their participation in the infringement.

The ICA will also adopt procedural guidelines which will set out the amount of the possible reduction in fines for settling parties.

Comment

The introduction of the settlement procedure is a further step to align Italian competition law with European standards. The purpose of the settlement procedure is to speed up proceedings and allow the parties to benefit from a reduction in fines. If the ICA aligns its procedure with the European Commission's then parties would be able to benefit from a 10% reduction in fines for settling with the ICA. 

Consistent with the approach at the EU level, parties do not have a right to settle. The ICA may therefore decide at any time to put an end to the settlement discussions if it considers that the effectiveness of the procedure has been compromised. Negotiations can be terminated with only one party, meaning there is a possibility of "hybrid" settlement decisions. In a hybrid process, the ICA would settle with one or several parties while continuing with the standard procedure for the remaining parties.