Pyramid promotional schemes and consumer protection (Jel: D180)

This article offers an in-depth analysis of the issue of pyramid promotional schemes,as it has been recently prompted by public enforcement activity of the Italian AntitrustAuthority. As a result of the recent developments in European and national consumerprotection law, this kind of economic activity is always considered an unfair commercialpractice, and because of that prohibited by art. 23, par. 1, let. p), Codice delConsumo. The practical application of the aforesaid ban has led the Italian AntitrustAuthority to make a significant hermeneutic effort in order to identify when undertakings'behavior fall inside the scope of application of the prohibition. In particular, startingfrom the specific criteria adopted by the Italian Antitrust Authority in its decisions,the authors attempt to complement the analysis, extending it to the field of multilevelmarketing systems. In this vein, we consider utmost necessary to highlight the differencesbetween, on the one hand, this lawful type of business activity and, on theother, prohibited pyramid promotional schemes, in order to avoid an overlapping risk.