The full text of this Article may be found by clicking the PDF link below. 

On global trends and national issues

Europe and Italy are finally emerging from recession. The OECD forecasts 0.6% growth in GDP for Italy in 2015, with potentially even more significant growth in 2016 (1.5%). The European Commission, too, is forecasting recovery, albeit limited, in Europe and Italy. The signs of recovery are weak but certain. In our country, sustained economic growth is essential both to maintaining social cohesion, which has been severely put to the test by high unemployment, and to ensuring the sustainability of the public debt.

During the years of crisis, anti-trust enforcement has held firm in Europe. Former European Commissioner for Competition Joaquín Almunia has always maintained that competition policy is one of the key instruments to end the crisis and get back on track to growth. The new Commissioner Margrethe Vestager began, in 2015, with a series of hardhitting competition protection measures, i.e. the statement of objections against Google of favoring its own Google Shopping sites, followed by the filing of antitrust charges against Russian energy giant Gazprom.

Competition Policy in the Italian Economy: Current Developments and Lines of Action