The Autoritá Garante Della Concorrenza E Del Mercado (“AGCM”), the Italian Competition Authority, recently imposed a €3.5 million fine on two companies – Mulpor Company S.r.l. (“Mulpor”) and International Business Convention Management Ltd. (“IBCM”) – for continuing to send misleading communications in contravention of a 2019 decision. In 2019, the Authority found that Mulpor and IBCM had exercised undue influence in the market by expecting message recipients to pay for unwanted services for which they unknowingly subscribed after receiving repeated reminders and legal threats.
The €3.5 million fine was imposed after the Authority confirmed that both companies continued to send misleading communications to enterprises and microenterprises – messages that appear to ask recipients to confirm their corporate data in an international directory but have actually caused recipients to inadvertently sign up for a three-year offer to advertise on the directory. Recipients have reportedly been billed €1,200 annually for the service. According to the Authority, both companies were sanctioned for these actions back in 2019 and were initially fined for noncompliance in 2021.