Mooney, 2.5 million in favor of the Antitrust Authority: ‘Misleading fee requests’

Antitrust: 2.5 Million Favored Mooney, Unfair Industrial Use

The Competition and Markets Authority has imposed a collective and several liability order on Mooney, the issuer and supervisor of the Mooney pay as you go card and the Mooney Group, the mom-and-pop company that exercises full management of Mooney, administrative penalties of approximately €2.5 million. The office writes that both corporations “failed to ensure effective and timely management of the issuance and proper use of their playing cards, thereby facilitating the unfair application of industry regulations through deceptive fee requests, apparently transmitted by chambers of commerce.”

In addition, “failed to conduct an investigation to determine informational and administrative deficiencies regarding Mooney card blocking and unblocking procedures.” The investigation was initiated after receiving information from the Office a very wide selection of reviews received from micro-enterprises receiving inquiries in which Mooney pay as you go card game is usually cited because of the instrument for which payment must be made.

During the proceedings, it was established that Mooney Spa, “despite being aware of the repeated use of playing cards for these illegal purposes, he failed to take timely initiatives to address the phenomenon. This behavior constitutes unfair industrial use in violation of Art. 20 section 2 of the Consumer Code, because it is contrary to the due diligence that an operator similar to Mooney SpA should follow, taking into account, among others, , the industry in which it operates and the severity of the reported phenomenon.”

Furthermore, the knowledge and strategies by which Mooney Spa launched the process of blocking its playing cards and managing blocking and any unblocking were found to be misleading and deceptive, in some circumstances preventing cardholders from using their cards indefinitely. This conduct constitutes unfair industrial conduct in breach of Article 20(1). 2, 21, 22, 24 and 25 of the Consumer Code, as it may unduly influence buyers’ freedom of choice in connection with the use of Mooney Pay as a card payment and hinder the exercise of their contractual rights.