ANTITRUST | The Court of Rome on a claim for compensation for abuse of a dominant position

On 15 March 2026, the Civil Court of Rome (the Court) issued a judgment (the Judgment) in a damages action brought following a decision (the Decision) of the Italian Competition Authority (ICA), which had found an abuse of dominant position in the electricity retail market. The alleged infringement consisted of the use of customer data originating from the regulated market and certain practices relating to the collection of privacy consents. However, the Decision was subsequently annulled by the Council of State. In light of such annulment, the Court treated the claim as a stand-alone action and carried out a full and independent assessment of the alleged infringement. In its Judgment, the Court adopted an effects-based approach, holding that neither the use of customer data nor the management of privacy consents constitutes, per se, an abuse of dominant position, in the absence of evidence of actual exclusionary effects or of a non-replicable competitive advantage.

Accordingly, the Court required a strict standard of proof both as to the existence of the infringement and as to the causal link between the alleged conduct and the claimed damage, reaffirming its full discretion in the assessment of the case.

Newsletter n. 117 – April 2026