Source: Sharecast
The watchdog said its officials, together with the Italian Financial Police, carried out inspections at the premises of Edenred Italia on Wednesday.
French-headquartered Edenred said it was "at the disposal" of the AGCM regulator to provide all necessary explanations.
“Following the introduction of a statutory cap on the reimbursement fees charged to affiliated businesses accepting meal vouchers, Edenred is thought to have implemented a complex strategy aimed at shifting entirely unjustified costs onto large-scale retail chains,” the AGCM said in a statement.
“In particular, Edenred seems to have unilaterally changed how electronic meal vouchers are accepted by discontinuing the direct integration between large-scale retail checkout systems and its own authorisation platforms.”
It added that this appeared to have been replaced by a requirement to use third-party interconnection systems, resulting in higher costs for large-scale retail chains. It also alleged that Edenred may have imposed other unfavourable conditions, such as longer voucher reimbursement periods.
Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com