In the bulletin of the Italian Competition Authority and of the Market (AGCM) published yesterday are illustrated to the Authority of Harbour System of the Strait, which in July had formulated a request for an opinion, the considerations on the basis of which The Antitrust Authority refused to request shipping company Charon & Tourist (C&T) to get a maritime state concession for the construction of a landing system for the Reggio Calabria-Messina connection.

Recalling that during this year I carried out a Investigation proceedings against C&T in relation to the Market for passenger and freight ferry services carried out with ro-pax vessels, considering this market distinct from that of commercial vehicle ferry services exclusively with ro-ro vessels, and including in that market, under the geographical profile, the two bidirectional routes that connect Villa San Giovanni with the ports of the Messina area (Messina Rada S. Francesco and Messina Porto), the AGCM has highlighted that on the market thus identified the position was ascertained dominant C&T which enjoys absolute leadership on the Strait carrying about 75-80% of passengers, 90-95% of cars and 60-65% of heavy vehicles. The Antitrust Authority had between the other fined C&T more than €3.7 million for exploiting its market power to price unjustifiably burdensome for consumers ( of 12 April 2022).

As regards the refusal to grant maritime State property, the AGCM reiterated that, "in general, the concessions should be issued in such a way as to limit their competitive impact. From a purely methodological point of view - the Antitrust Authority has specified - the Authority also intends in This House reiterates how, in order to minimise the discretion of port authorities, maximizing on the other hand, the degree of transparency and fairness of the decision, The dealer selection process should not take the moved exclusively by the request of the interested party, such as occurred instead in the present circumstance, without there being an act upstream programming leading to a call for tenders and a procedure public evidence for the choice of the custodian. The Authority considers, in fact, that only the use of adequate procedures of competitive comparison, activated at the instigation of the authorities themselves dockers, are able to guarantee, on the one hand, the necessary consistency of the content of the concession with planning strategic carried out at national level or at the level of individual Authorities of Harbour System and, on the other hand, the assignment of the same to the subject who is best able to use it profitably and with respect for the public interest'.

"In this perspective - the AGCM has also noted - It would be advisable to avoid granting the concession to vertically integrated in the phase of provision of passenger or freight transport, so as to allow usability as extensive as possible of the infrastructures built by part of all stakeholders, such as where the concession is granted in favour of a non-compliant person vertically integrated in the phase of provision of passenger or freight transport. In any case, the possible Concession measure should be formulated by inserting a clause to ensure that, in the management of the new docking of Reggio Calabria, all instrumental services for ferry activities are provided by the concessionaire both in self-production and in favor of other operators who should require them (so-called multi-carrier clause)'.