Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Annex I, 7. Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Annex I, 26. Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Annex I, 29.

The provision of unordered energy services constitutes an unfair commercial practice.

On February 2008, further to several consumers' complaints concerning the provision of unordered electricity and gas, the Italian Competition Authority decided to start investigation proceedings against the following companies:

Enel S.p.A., Enel Distribuzione S.p.A., Enel Energia S.p.A. e Enel Servizio Elettrico S.p.A.; and Visiant Contact Centre S.r.l., In & Out S.p.A., Primavox S.a.s. and Easy Word S.a.s (third companies in their quality of teleselling agent companies for Enel Energia S.p.A.). The different investigated conducts consisted of:

Activation of electricity and/or gas supply, in the absence of a request from the consumer; Creating obstacles for exercising the right of withdrawal right; Misleading advertising communications; Advertising campaign aimed at promoting special energy offers. Since the practises were carried out by using telephone lines and television ads, the opinion of the Italian Authority for Communication was also requested on 18 July 2008.

 

The Italian Competition Authority decided that the conduct constituted unfair commercial practices:

Conduct 1: aggressive practice - since it considerably reduces (or is able to reduce) the consumers' choice. Moreover, it also falls within the scope of the black list (delivering unordered products). Conduct 2: aggressive practice - since it constitutes an obstacle to a consumers' contractual rights; Conduct 3: aggressive practice - since it constitutes an unjustified influence of the consumers' behaviour by means of misleading information. Moreover, it also falls within the black list since it is carried out through persistent telephone calls. Conduct 4: misleading practice - since it misguides consumers with respect to both the role and the activity of the undertaking, as well as to their commercial choice. Moreover, this conduct also represents a misleading omission, as consumers have not been provided with the relevant information for a proper transactional decision.

Whether the provision of not consciously requested services may constitute an unfair commercial practice.

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The undertakings were fined as follows:

Energia S.p.A. - Euro 500,000; Enel Energia S.p.A. - Euro 500,000.