Abstract

We review the recent decision of the Italian Antitrust authority on the acquisition of Infostrada, a telecommunication operator, by Wind, another telecommunication operator controlled by ENEL. The project has been authorized under the condition that ENEL dismisses 5500 MW of power in the generation segment. The case has been initially considered by the European Commission and then released to the Italian Authority. This latter has concluded that the project would lead ENEL to increase its dominant position in the market for electric eligible customers, due to ENEL's market power in the upstream segment of electric generation and the ability to offer packages of electric and telecommunication services. In this paper the arguments of the Antitrust Authority are reviewed and criticized.