Italy’s antitrust authority, L’Autorita Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), has handed incumbent operator Telecom Italia (TI) two fines totalling EUR600,000 (USD847,000) for anticompetitive behaviour, the Agenzia Giornalistica Italia reports. The regulator fined TI EUR320,000 for obstructing customers efforts to switch operator, and a further EUR280,000 for adopting a commercial practice which was ‘aimed at keeping customers who showed their intention of changing operator by starting off procedures for transferring their mobile user number to a competitor’.
This is not the first time in 2009 that TI has felt the ire of the AGCM: on 16 April CommsUpdate reported that the telco had been fined EUR735,000 as a result of three investigations; including a penalty of EUR285,000 for inadequate representation of connection speeds to the company’s ADSL services. On 12 December 2008 AGCM announced that it had accepted and rendered binding commitments proposed by TI that would limit the company’s attempts to win back customers who have changed to another operator.