Italian Competition Authority investigates the railway sector for an alleged abuse of dominant position
Contacts
Partner
Italy
As a partner in the EU & Competition Group in Italy, my practice areas stretch from antitrust and regulatory proceedings, to administrative and commercial litigation, with in-depth expertise in TMT law and regulation.
Counsel
Italy
I work as a counsel in our Competition and European Union Law department in Rome, where I deal with Technology and Communications, assisting our national and international clients in EU and competition law matters, supporting companies in their business activities and assisting them in proceedings relating to abuse of dominant position and agreements restrictive of competition before the Antitrust Authority. I am often involved in comprehensive and structured antitrust audit and compliance programmes with Italian and international clients.
On 11 April 2025, the Italian Competition Authority ("ICA") announced the launch of antitrust proceedings against Rete Ferroviaria Italiana ("RFI") and its parent company, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane ("FSI"), for allegedly violating Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ("TFEU").
This investigation reaffirms the ICA’s ongoing interest in the railway sector, was highlighted in May 2023 when the ICA accepted commitments proposed by Trenitalia (the public railway incumbent) and closed its Article 102 TFEU investigation for constructive refusal to deal in the markets for regional and medium-long distance public rail passenger transport services on the conventional network.
In this particular case, the proceedings follow a complaint from SNCF Voyages Italia ("SNV"), the Italian subsidiary of a French passenger rail company, which claims that it requested a 15-year framework agreement from RFI, which manages the national railway system, to expand high-speed passenger services. It was alleged that RFI took obstructive measures to hinder SNV’s access to the infrastructure.
As the sole manager of Italy’s railway network, RFI was suspected of implementing an abusive strategy that delayed or obstructed SNV’s entry into the market.
The ICA’s investigation focuses on the following alleged behaviours by RFI:
- designing its framework capacity assignment system in a way that, while formally aligned with regulatory requirements, effectively discourages new entrants from accessing the railway network;
- allocating excessive framework capacity to incumbent operators, thereby prioritising those that make the most intensive use of the network;
- managing conflicting capacity requests in a way that penalises new entrants, notably by reducing the first coordination phase to a mere formality - failing to propose alternatives or negotiate to redistribute capacity.
The ICA also attributed the alleged infringement to FSI, which fully owns RFI and controls Trenitalia, the operator that appeared benefit from the contested strategy.
According to the ICA, this conduct could significantly hinder the entry and operation of both current and potential foreign competitors in the national market, thus affecting trade between Member States under Article 102 TFEU.
It will now be up to the companies, in the course of the proceedings, to either rebut the ICA’s presumptions and demonstrate that no abuse has occurred, or present commitments capable of addressing the anti-competitive concerns raised in the current investigation.
The ICA decision (in Italian only) is available at the following link.
The ICA press release (in English) is available at the following link.
For more information, please contact Federico Marini Balestra, Lucia Antonazzi, Jacopo M. Orsi and Bianca Maria Gorlero.
