The pandemic was in its infancy. The first cases in Italy were still limited. The dawn of 2020, however, did not seem a good omen. In Sardinia, when everyone was already preparing for the calamity of the century, there were those who took care to set up a real merciless war machine capable of scraping the already poor pockets of Sardinian citizens to the bottom . An unprecedented deployment of means to try everything and for everything, in order to bring "home" a millionaire nestle able to plug the holes, deficits and debts of the most imposing water factory on the island, Abbanoa. To be put under the "press" were precisely those citizens-users who, willy-nilly, in order to have the primary good of water, had to deal with the company delegated to manage, under a monopoly regime, the integrated water service of Sardinia.

Two million reminders

It is immediately after January 1, 2020 that Abbanoa has the most decisive attack on the pockets of its users. The Competition Authority photographs that phase as a real flood of "recommended" that pour like a stone-thrower into the homes of the Sardinians. The Guarantor writes: "Finally, it appears that, after 1 January 2020, the company sent about 1-2 million payment reminders, also without any indication that they concerned bills including - unspecified - amounts. subject to prescription ". An unprecedented avalanche of payment reminders . Against «1-2 million» letters sent, it is thought that Abbanoa users are 750,000. All letters functional to request the payment of sums clearly prescribed, not due, with the indication of generic amounts that ended up, however, to put the citizen-user back to the wall. Not simple letters of invitation to pay "prescribed sums", without ever indicating them clearly, but real letters "charged" with consequences that would have led to undergo "pressure" even to the most strenuous opponent of so many "aggressive" requests. Abbanoa did not limit himself to asking for the payment of "overdue" sums, prescribed and not due, but he put on paper the worst of the threats: we will cut off the water if you do not pay . The Guarantor Authority "seizes" the letter under accusation in the proceedings against Abbanoa. The Sardinian water company wrote: "If the arrears persist and the conditions foreseen occur, the suspension and deactivation of the supply can be carried out after 40 days from the receipt of this amicable reminder". Therefore, the Guarantor reconstructs, not only did Abbanoa ask for sums that were not due as they were clearly prescribed, but, in order to obtain payment, he switched to the strong streets, announcing the "deactivation" of the water supply . The Swiss Competition Authority watch was on time like never before. On Sunday in the Sardinian Union investigation we announced the imminent decision signed by Roberto Rustichelli, President of the Guarantor Authority and by the Secretary General Guido Stazi.

Judgment blow

Yesterday morning the “sentence”: «The Authority decides to impose an administrative fine of five million euros on the company Abbanoa SpA». Not really a parking ticket. It is, in fact, one of the most serious and imposing penalties ever imposed by the Authority, to which must be added that of four million euros which became final last year. An unprecedented blow that lays bare a system that the supervisor of the provision, Professor Michele Ainis, dismantles piece by piece in a 39-page sentence, a real condemnation of the system perpetrated by Abbanoa against citizens-users. The accusation marked in red in the provision is explicit: "The commercial practice put in place by the company Abbanoa SpA, constitutes, for the reasons and within the limits set out in the motivation, an incorrect commercial practice, and prohibits its dissemination or continuation". Not only a record "fine" to be paid within thirty days, but also the obligation to communicate "to the Authority, within the term of sixty days from the notification of this provision, the initiatives taken in compliance with the warning". The sanction, for this kind of abuse, could range from 5 thousand euros to 5 million euros, the Authority decided on the highest amount, the millionaire. A decision that is unprecedented in the water sector, if not the one already imposed, for similar reasons, in Abbanoa in 2019 and confirmed by the administrative courts last year. And that the "system" is at the basis of such a heavy decision, Abbanoa writes the same Authority: "There is, at the same time, an aggravating circumstance, as Abbanoa has already been the recipient of previous measures for violation of the rules set out in the Code of Consumption".

The bad habit

According to the Authority, it is therefore a real reiterated "system" , all aimed at forcing, with aggressive and incorrect practices, the citizen-users to pay even what was not only not due, but was clearly even illegitimate to ask. The data that emerge from the investigation are disarming. Even when users pointed out, with formal communications from individual citizens since June 2021, and then in September by Adiconsum, that those sums were prescribed, Abbanoa continued to issue invoices and payment reminders. All this despite there was an obligation on the water service managers that required them to inform users about the entry into force of the two-year prescription in the drinking water sector. In practice, if the sums had not been requested correctly and in due time, after two years, according to the new rules, those sums were to be considered in all respects prescribed and as such could no longer be requested. There is a reason for the maximum quantification of the sanction that emerges clearly from the Authority's decision. The managers of Abbanoa have not limited themselves to ignoring the prescription of the sums, but have "systematically rejected the prescription exception regarding the charges invoiced after January 1, 2020 and relating to water consumption dating back more than two years before the invoice itself ". And the Antitrust communication is without appeal: "These behaviors integrate an incorrect commercial practice as they are contrary to professional diligence and capable of appreciably distorting the consumer's conduct in relation, moreover, to a service of primary interest". For Abbanoa, «various profiles of illegality were found, characterized by a significant degree of offensiveness due to non-compliance and / or obstacle to the exercise of the main rights of consumers. For this reason, the Authority has decided to impose the maximum penalty envisaged by the Consumer Code on Abbanoa ». Facts of unprecedented gravity emerge from the investigative proceedings. As of January 1, 2020, Abbanoa "issued a total of approximately 10-20 thousand bills containing prescribed amounts, of which approximately 10-15 thousand in the year 2020 and approximately 1-5 thousand in the first quarter of 2021. From an internal company document it emerges that, in the period 1 January 2020 - 21 February 2020, Abbanoa sent approximately 1-5 thousand invoices, with an issue date before 31 December 2019 and payment deadline after 1 January 2020, containing amounts subject to the two-year prescription, without specifying the amount of said amounts ".

The New Year of Abbanoa

In practice, according to what the Authority writes, in February 2020 bills were sent with an issue date prior to 31 December 2019 and expiring the day after. One element remains to be clarified: who will have to pay this fine? It is clear that the responsibilities are clear and evident, and certainly these huge sums necessary to pay these penalties certainly cannot be attributed to the citizens' bills. In this case, the Court of Auditors will have to call into question all the subjects who have been responsible for these conducts. And, meanwhile, the black summer of Abbanoa does not seem to be over. In fact, new interventions by the Authority are on the way, starting with the choice of the bill delivery companies, and even new very heavy judicial rulings on the long-standing story of previous adjustments 2005-2011.

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