(1) The Italian Competition Authority first notes that the average consumer is aware that the purchase of real estate will be accompanied with several additional costs which are always mandatory, such as the applicable taxes and notary costs. As a result, the omission to mention these additional cost in an advertisement, does not constitute a misleading omission.
Conversely, the Italian Competition Authority ruled, in absence of communication in this respect, an average consumer cannot be assumed to expect that the sale of the apartments will be performed through the intervention of a broker. Without any indication to the contrary, the consumer may reasonably expect to deal directly with the seller, hence to have no obligation to pay any additional broker costs. It was further stated that, although the buyer was informed on the intervention of a broker at the moment he contacted the defendants, the advertisements were misleading as they incited the consumers to take contact with the defendants.
(2) The Authority first established that, contrary to what the defendants stated, there was no doubt that the consumers were obliged to by one (or more) garage box(es) in case of purchase of the advertised apartments (all apartments sold were sold with garage box). In a short reasoning, the court stated that, taking into account the facts, advertising that the purchase of an additional garage was merely optional, was a misleading commercial practice likely to influence the transactional decision of the average consumer.
URL: http://www.agcm.it/ricerca-avanzata/open/C12560D000291394/646E21C39A92F673C125781C004F1957.html
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