Altroconsumo
About
Set up in 1973, Altroconsumo (AC) is the more influential and important consumers organisation in Italy. Its strength comes from the membership fees of over 314,000 members that make AC free and independent. The mission of Altroconsumo is to protect and promote consumers rights by a set of different activities, mainly: products testing, inquiries, news drafting, enforcement activities and legal actions.
Success Stories
Over the years, Altroconsumo lodged several class actions and antitrust claims. Among the most popular we can mention the following:
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2010 - Class action against the Intesa Sanpaolo bank for the illegal overdraft fees that the bank had been charging its customers since 2009 despite having been abolished by law. The participating consumers (104 in total) obtained a refund of up to EUR 1,200. At the end of 2020, we obtained the final favourable ruling of the Court of Appeal on this trial.
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2013 - Class action against Trenord, a rail company of the Lombardy region, because in December 2012 a general blackout of its informatics system provoked 10 days of severe malfunctioning, with thousands of trains cancelled or delayed. The commuters (3018 adherents) got a refund of around 100€ each in 2017.
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2016 - The Dieselgate scandal - Volkswagen Group. More than 63.000 were the Italian adherents to #DemandForJustice class action for the Dieselgate scandal that claimed for a refund of 15% of the purchase price of the car. Victory in first degree in July 2021.
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2018 - The Italian Antitrust authority fined Apple (10 millions €) and Samsung (5 millions €) for “induced” premature obsolescence of some models of their smart phones by mean of unsuitable upgrade of the firmware. The case was started thanks to a claim filed by Altroconsumo.
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2022 - The Italian Competition and Market Authority fined the pharmaceutical company Leadiant for charging an excessively high price for one of its drugs, CDCA-Leadiant, taking advantage of its dominant market position. The fine amounts to approximately EUR 3.5 million. It all started with a report by Altroconsumo to the Antitrust Authority in 2019.
Facts
- Founded in 1973
- A BEUC founding member
- around 220 staff
- Members in 2022: 314,000
- Consumer advice: 280,000