Italy's Antitrust fines Bird, Dott and Lime €2.675M for blocking free rides in Rome

The fines

Italy's competition authority (AGCM) fined Bird, Dott, and Lime a total of €2.675 million for obstructing free ride packages (Pass) for Metrebus annual subscribers in Rome. The investigation, opened in November 2025, covered the three operators authorized to run micromobility services (e-bikes and electric scooters) in Rome for the 2023-2026 period. Lime received the largest fine at €1.4 million, while Dott was fined €525,000. The individual fine for Bird was not separately stated in the authority's announcement. The three-year tender under which the companies operate is now approaching its expiration, as reported by Il Messaggero.

What happened

Under Rome's tender for micromobility services, the municipality had indicated discounts for annual Metrebus subscription holders as an evaluation criterion for the bids. The three winning companies had offered near-total free rides for Atac card holders. Annual Metrebus subscribers are entitled to up to 3 rides per day of 30 minutes each, while monthly subscribers receive a €35 voucher. However, the AGCM found that the companies adopted inadequate organizational measures to handle user requests, making activation of the Pass cumbersome and wait times long, thereby reducing the time subscribers had to use their free rides. Il Messaggero reported that in one provision, an email was cited in which someone explicitly asked to "make the activation process for discounted subscriptions sufficiently difficult." According to Fanpage, Dott required users to resubmit applications every month, and response times were never immediate. For Lime, responses in most cases never arrived at all. Il Messaggero noted that the case had been highlighted by the newspaper's own investigations over the past three years.

Bird's additional violation

Beyond the shared violations, the AGCM found Bird guilty of a separate unfair commercial practice: the arbitrary deactivation of user accounts without prior notice of the circumstances justifying it and without allowing users to contest the decision. This made it impossible for affected users to access the service again. The authority noted that the sanctioned conduct had a significant impact on consumers because the three companies restricted access to a mobility service meant to complement public transport and promote sustainability through low-emission vehicles. Il Messaggero noted that what the city's Mobility Department had failed to address, the Antitrust authority accomplished.

Consumer group reaction

The consumer advocacy group Codacons welcomed the fine and said it is evaluating possible legal action against Bird, Dott, and Lime to seek compensation for affected Metrebus subscribers.

The citizens of the Capital who hold Metrebus subscriptions were unjustly deprived of the possibility of using free rides on the sharing vehicles made available by the three operators. An unfair practice that has been severely punished by the Antitrust, but it is not enough: we believe that the users involved should be compensated for the damages suffered.

Codacons stated it is assessing the possible legal actions to pursue against the three companies to protect the interests of all Metrebus subscribers in Rome damaged by the unlawful practices established by the Antitrust.