Tar confirms maximulta of 3.7 million antitrusts in Caronte & Tourist: “unjustifiably heavy prices”

The sanction of over 3.7 million euros inflicted by the Antitrustust at the end of March 2022 to the Caronte & Tourist company, accused of abuse of the dominant position, for having applied “unjustified prices” for the ferrying of passengers with cars in tow on the Strait of Messina. The start of the antitrust investigation had initially distinguished two relevant markets: that of the transport of passengers with cars in tow, and that of freight transport or heavy vehicles. However, the investigation had only concerned the first of the two markets. The TAR, after preliminarily rejecting the censors of formal content concerning the late of the start of the procedure and the composition of the proceeding authority, considered that “on the basis of the current situation of the landing landings Calabria-Sicily, the market of the routes in question is not closed in an absolute sense but, considering the demand for transport of passengers and goods, the high frequency of the connection services and the conditions of the airports, there is a situation of congestion. makes the market not freely accessible ». According to the judges, then, “the complaints on the price iniquity evaluation must be disregarded, having the AGCM analyzed the prices practiced by submitting them to verification according to multiple alternative criteria, which have given all very similar results, without the conclusions achieved presenting illogicality or obvious inconsistencies”.