Abstract

Once particular markets do not work well, resulting in serious negative effects for consumers, businesses and the entire economy, the Italian Antitrust Authority (IAA) might opt to carry out sector studies, the so-called «indagini conoscitive». By means of these IAA offers to private firms and public authorities a first important warning about which business conducts are lawful or which normative regulations are admissible under a competition law point of view, and gets a better knowledge of the industry at stake on the basis of which it might decide to launch further initiatives of public enforcement or competition advocacy. Given the wide-ranging set of reasons might underlie the IAA's sector studies and the variety of outcomes might take place from these, in this article we intend to provide a critical review of the «indagini conoscitive» initiated by the IAA between 1990 and 2010, with a strong emphasis on the services sector.