Further to a complaint reported by several consumers and consumers associations, the Italian Competition Authority launched an investigation against defendant on 18 July 2011. More in particular, it was investigated by the Authority whether the commercial practices consisting in the activation of paid services without the express consumer's consent, consisted a breach of the rules on unfair commercial practices.
According to the consumer complaints, the defendant via its website www.italia-programmi.net website, invited users that were visiting the website for a free software download, to register on the website. However, the defendant did not make clear that - by means of the registration - the subscribers were bound by a binding contract of two years for the provision of paid download services.
In addition, it was established that the defendant subsequently refused to terminate the contracts, although withdrawal requests were sent within 10 working days from the registration, and that it repeatedly requested payment for the download services in absence of which the defendant would take the necessary legal actions to claim payments due.