PATRIZIO BIANCHI e GIUSEPPINA GUALTIERI

La politica della concorrenza comunitaria e le concentrazioni industriali: fusioni ed acquisizioni in Italia

N. 148

Summary - Italy is the only European country which does not have legislation guiding the rules of competition; other countries have different attitudes, either favouring the national concentration process, such as France, or refusing any monopolization, i.e. Germany; all countries have a specific legislation on information requirements and have fixed a minimum size for public control; on the other hand the EEC Commission tends to control the M. & A. operations having an European impact, that is mergers operated by large transnational groups.

This article presents an analysis of the concentration process and an evaluation of the merger activity in Italy since 1983. A very large portion of the total M. & A. activity has been operated by small independent companies, that - according to other countries regulations - should escape from the national control, and the residual activity, operated by large Italian and Foreign groups, should be candidates for an European control. The conclusion is that the Antitrust law under discussion in Italy could have a limited impact, but it should be positive because the introduction of informative requirements, favouring the transparency of Italian financial markets