Regulation of Telecommunications Broadcasting and Public Utilities - Antitrust C

The Italian government is preparing the privatization of its electric energy company ("ENEL"). On August 1, 1995, the Italian Antitrust Authority ("the Authority") issued an opinion on the present organization of ENEL, repeating a position which it had already announced in July 1994, that ENEL should be split up into discrete segments to stimulate competition and facilitate market entrance. The Italian Government of Mr. Lamberto Dini disagrees with the Authority's recommendation, and argues that ENEL should be privatized en bloc.

Opponents to the split up of ENEL argue that it would retard privatization. In that regard, the Authority argues in its August 1 notice that the threat of an antitrust action after the privatization may also chill investment interest in the sale to which it gives an estimated value of 30 trillion Lire. The Authority points out that European Union legislation and policy expressly require that competition be stimulated in the electric energy industry, and