Italy: Trade Regulation & Practices

The Privacy Regulations in force within the European Union are currently contained in two Directives: (a) the original Data Protection Directive (No. 95/46/EC of 24 October 1995 "on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data"), (b) the ePrivacy Directive, adopted a few years later (No. 2002/58/EC of 12 July 2002 ) with the specific intent to regulate "the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the elec

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's governmental decree on liberalization has recently become law, introducing a number of changes to the Italian antitrust and competition rules that had been originally laid down by the office of the Italian Antitrust Authority (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, or "AGCM") at the time when Antonio Catricalà, today Vice-Secretary of the Council of Ministers, was the acting Chairman of the AGCM.

On 5 July 2011, the Italian Competition Authority imposed fines of €5.1 million on a multinational crop protection company for having abused its dominant position on the market for fosetyl-based systemic fungicides in breach of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.