Word: tesauro
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...pharmacies are not alone in their alleged transgressions. The view of every Italian economic sector that it has special needs that have "nothing to do with competition" amuses Tesauro, but it can be frustrating as well. The producers of prosciutto di Parma, for example, claim that agreements among themselves to keep production down--and prices high--are really aimed at maintaining their lofty standards. "It's not true that limited quantity means higher quality," Tesauro counters. "They have to do checks on quality, not quantity...
...Authority, with a staff of 170, can't follow up on every complaint it receives, and Tesauro wields considerable power in choosing where the agency will focus its energy. He has decided to take on high- profile cases that offer a big payoff in public support. In July the Authority opened an investigation into the National Association of Pharmacy Owners for prohibiting individual pharmacies from offering discounts on products whose prices are not regulated. "The monopoly of the pharmacies, above all for items that are not medicine, is somewhat medieval," Tesauro says...
...Tesauro's team has kept a keen eye on the sale of a wide variety of nonmedical products sold by pharmacies and taken action as well. Last March the Authority dissolved a cartel of six producers of powdered milk for babies, which for years had denied supermarkets the chance to sell their product and instead used pharmacies as the main means of distribution. As a result, according to the Authority, powdered- milk prices were two to three times higher in Italy than abroad. Supermarkets at last started selling the product this summer...
...Tesauro says it will take years before the concept of competition takes a firm hold in Italy. "Maybe 10 years have not been enough to shake up a system that was so encrusted with state control. You can do a lot with the Antitrust Authority, and you can do a lot with laws, but in the end, you have to transform a culture of protection to one of competition," he says. He points to telephones: real competition meant a drop in prices and better service...
Meanwhile, a recent report by the 29-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development praised Tesauro's Authority for its "seriousness and independence" in taking on well-connected firms, and noted that the talented young staff members get paid enough to stay, and work at a pace not often seen in state institutions. "The transparency and speed of the Authority's procedures have demonstrated a commitment to business 'not as usual,'" the report said. If Tesauro stays on the job, maybe business itself will get the hint...