Eversheds Sutherland obtains from the Italian Administrative Supreme Court the reduction of the antitrust fine imposed on La Rinascente

Eversheds Sutherland successfully assisted the leading Italian department store operator La Rinascente in the appeal against an Italian Competition Authority’s decision dating back to June 2009 which had fined La Rinascente for an unfair commercial practice related to marketing in its retail stores of a co-branded credit card issued by Findomestic, an Italian major consumer credit company.

After having obtained a substantial reduction of the ICA’s fine already before the first instance administrative judge on the basis of the proven failure of the ICA to meet its burden of proof on the ‘aggressiveness’ requirement of the unfair commercial practice pursuant to the Italian Consumer Code relevant provisions, in the second-instance appeal before the Council of State Eversheds Sutherland obtained the rejection of the main appeal brought by the ICA and the partial upheld of La Rinascente’s cross appeal which resulted in a further reduction of the antitrust fine up to half of the amount originally imposed by the ICA.

Eversheds Sutherland’s competition team was coordinated by the Partner Alessandro Greco and by the associate Giuseppe Liotine, supported by the Of Counsel Mariangela di Giandomenico, in charge of the Public Law practice for Italy.