Supreme Court confirms abuse of dominance by Centro Agroalimentare Roma operator

The Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) has rendered final the finding of abuse of dominant position by the operator of the Centro Agroalimentare di Roma, with order no. 17328/2026 declaring the operator's final appeal inadmissible and confirming the ruling of the Corte d'Appello di Roma.

The case is one of the rare instances in which an abuse of dominant position has been established by an Italian civil court through a stand-alone action — that is, in the absence of a prior finding by the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM).

The dispute originated in 2007, when approximately fifty wholesale distribution companies challenged the operator of the Centro Agroalimentare di Roma over the imposition of anticompetitive contractual terms. Following an initial dismissal for lack of evidence, the case reached the Supreme Court for the first time, establishing a principle now central to civil antitrust case law: in the presence of alleged competition law violations, and given the informational asymmetry between the parties in terms of access to evidence, an extensive interpretation of the procedural rules on document disclosure, information requests and, above all, court-appointed expert evidence is required (judgment no. 11564/2015).

On remand, the Corte d'Appello di Roma applied this principle by ordering a detailed court-appointed expert assessment, which established that the Centro Agroalimentare di Roma could not be substituted from a logistical and commercial standpoint, thereby confirming the operator's dominant position and the abusive nature of numerous clauses imposed on market operators (judgment no. 8364/2023).

The claimants were assisted by BonelliErede's Civil Antitrust Litigation Task Force, with a team led by partner Francesco Anglani, supported on antitrust law matters by senior associate Andrea Luigi Montini, and on litigation matters by partner Vittorio Allavena, supported by senior associate Alberto Caccavale.

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