The Italian Antitrust Authority on 17th November 1999, decided to commence, following a request from Infostrada, a detailed investigation of Telecom Italia on possible competition concerns regarding the exclusive marketing of telecommunication services based on Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology. ADSL is a modem technology that uses digital coding techniques to squeeze up to 99 % more capacity out of ordinary phone lines without interfering with regular phone services and connecting users at the highest speeds.
Telecom Italia’s exclusive policy of marketing telecommunication services with access to ADSL technology may violate Article 3 of the Italian Antitrust Law No.287/90 (the one sanctioning the abuse of dominant position). Telecom Italia holds a dominant position in the Italian telecommunication market and therefore its behaviour of not making available to other competitors access to ADSL technology may affect competitors thereby reducing their capacity to offer alternative data transmission services and access to the internet.
The document can be found on the Italian Antitrust Authority web site at: http://www.agcm.it/find011.htm
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