Italy's rail operator FS under investigation for 'hindering' French competitor
Both FS and its subsidiary Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), which manages Italy's railway network, are suspected of "abuse of dominant position," Italian competition watchdog AGCM said in a statement.
"Access to the national railway infrastructure and, as a consequence, entry into the high-speed passenger transport market by new player SNCF Voyages Italia S.r.l. appears to have been slowed down, and in some cases hindered," the watchdog added.
RFI is suspected of having implemented an "exclusionary strategy" regarding the "allocation of infrastructure capacity" to SNCF Voyages Italia, it said.
FS said in a statement that it had "fully collaborated" with inspections and would demonstrate "the correctness" of its conduct at a hearing set to be held at some point in the coming 60 days.
The competition watchdog and financial police have carried out inspections at the offices of RFI and FS, as well as rail companies Trenitalia and Italo, as they were "deemed to hold documents relevant to the investigation".
Currently, SNCF Voyages "only operates on the international Milan-Turin-Paris line and does not serve other domestic destinations," the watchdog said.
But SNCF said last June that it planned to launch several domestic high-speed connections from 2026, with the aim of achieving a 15-percent market share by 2030.
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It hopes to eventually offer nine daily return trips between Turin, Milan, Rome and Naples, and four return trips between Turin and Venice, which it plans to operate using 15 new TGV M trains.
The first deliveries of the new trains are scheduled for the second half of 2025.
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