Two years ago, Italy's Antitrust Authority was granted new powers to enforce the country's consumer protection laws. Practitioners reported a sharp increase in consumer protection cases, but some felt that this harmed its cartel-busting efforts. This perception still exists within the Italian competition bar: "The only criticism I could express is that the authority tends to concentrate too much on short term targets and achievements," says one local lawyer. "As such, it cares less about the long-term objectives of the antitrust rules and it devotes excessive time and resources to the unfair commercial practices cases compared with the antitrust behavioural cases."