Antitrust, 5 million fine to Poste Italiane

Published on: 09/15/2020 8:11 AM

The Competition and Market Authority has imposed to Poste Italiane a fine of 5 million euros, the maximum allowed by law, “for having adopted an unfair commercial practice in violation of the Consumer Code, consisting of the deceptive promotion of characteristics of the certified delivery service and the digital withdrawal service for certified mail”.

In particular, the Authority “found that the attempted delivery of certified letters is not always carried out at the time and with the certainty that are highlighted in the advertising messages, but that, moreover, it is frequently carried out in ways other than those prescribed by law. In fact, Poste Italiane sometimes uses for convenience the deposit of the notice of stock of the registered letter in the mailbox even when it would have been possible to deliver it to the addressee “.

In this regard, there are many complaints from consumers who denounced the failed attempt to deliver certified mail, even when they were certain that they were present at their address (think, for example, of people forced to go home due to disability or to the health emergency during the confinement) “.

The Antitrust underlines that “the consequence of such behavior, in relation to which Poste Italiane has not adopted the necessary control and corrective measures, causes an inadmissible burden on consumers forced to lose time and money to collect Recommended not delivered diligently”. The Authority also found “the existence of omissions of information even in the advertising messages that promote the digital withdrawal service for certified letters, since it is not clarified that this service can only be used for shipments of digital origin.”

The behaviors described also cause serious damage to the country’s justice system due to delays due to incorrect notifications in the realization of trials, especially criminal ones, which lead to the prescription of numerous crimes, as stated repeatedly in the Annual Reports on the state of the law. Justice. mentioned in the provision, “adds the Authority in a note.

“Given the extreme severity and frequency of the practice and the very considerable harm caused to consumers, the penalty was imposed to the maximum.. However, the same is not dissuasive in relation to the specific turnover generated by Poste Italiane only in the year 2019, equal to 3,492 million euros. In this sense, the European Directive 2019/2161 has not yet been transposed into the national legal system, which establishes the maximum legal penalty to be imposed at 4% of annual turnover, ”the Antitrust finally underlines.