by Veronica Pinotti, Martino Sforza and Nicolò Di Castelnuovo

In response to significant feedback, the Italian Competition Authority (the Authority) clarified the following issues concerning the new mandatory fee that was discussed in our recent blog post, Italian Competition Authority Mandatory Fee Due by 30 October 2012:

• In relation to foreign companies, only those registered in the Companies Register (Registro delle Imprese) before any of the Italian Chambers of Commerce, will pay the mandatory fee (provided that their revenues exceed €50 million).  Foreign companies are subject to registration with the Companies Register if they have an administrative/secondary seat in Italy, or their main business is in Italy.
• Companies belonging to a group are subject individually to the mandatory fee, provided that their revenues exceed the €50 million threshold.  When several companies which are subject to the mandatory fee, belong to the same group, the maximum amount—equal to €400,000 for the year 2013—refers to the entire group.  The payment may be carried out by the parent company, individually for each of the subsidiaries that are subject to the fee.  However, if the group’s liability reaches the maximum threshold, a single payment by the parent company is allowed.  In this situation, the Authority must be provided with a chart specifying the details of all companies subject to the fee and for which the payment is being made.
• For the companies drafting their financial statements in accordance with international accounting standards, the bases for calculating the fee are the revenues corresponding to item A1 on the Income Statement, drafted in accordance with Italian accounting standards.  The Authority has not provided any further guidance on this specific issue but it should be possible to determine those revenues by reclassifying the Income Statement’s items on the basis of the criteria set out in Article 2425 of the Italian Civil Code.