INTRODUCTION
Rai Com S.p.A, a sole shareholder company with registered office in Rome, Via Umberto Novaro no. 18, with fully paid-up share capital of Euro 10,320,000, tax code and VAT no. 12865250158 (hereinafter also “Rai Com“) is the company subject to management and coordination activity exercised by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana S.p.A. (with registered office in Rome, Via Alessandro Severo n. 246, tax code 06382641006), which has as its corporate purpose, inter alia, the publication and production of magazines as well as the establishment of editorial publications for purposes of distributing commercial products in the newsstand channel.
PURPOSE
By publishing this public notice (“Notice“), Rai Com launches a market search to identify, in compliance with the principles of non-discrimination, equal treatment, proportionality and transparency, companies to be invited to the competitive procedure for the assignment of the commercial distribution services within the newsstand and large-scale retails channels for publishing and commercial products (“Services“).
The publication of this Notice is in itself preparatory to inviting the companies to the competitive procedure; however, it does not, as also indicated in the paragraph “Reserves and Clarifications”, oblige Rai Com to carry out the actual competitive procedure and it does not entail for the companies any right and/or claim to enter into contracts with Rai Com and/or any additional future assignment procedures.
RESERVES AND CLARIFICATIONS
This Notice does not constitute an invitation to offer or an offer to the public, pursuant to Art. 1336 of the Italian Civil Code, or a promise to the public, pursuant to Art. 1989 of the Italian Civil Code, but a simple request to formulate an expression of interest, which will not be binding in any way for Rai Com.
Rai Com reserves the right to proceed even in the presence of a single expression of interest or by identifying additional competitors, also using the RAI Supplier Register.
Rai Com reserves the right in any case not to proceed with the call for the next competitive procedure or to initiate a different procedure and/or to suspend, modify or cancel at any time this market search in whole or in part: in such cases, companies that have expressed an interest may not claim any legitimate expectation or demand, for any reason, from Rai Com.
No reimbursement is due for the submission of an expression of interest, even if the subsequent competitive procedure is not carried out.
PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS
Companies wishing to submit their expression of interest must meet the following requirements:
– not be listed in the computer database kept by the observatory of the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC) and/or by any other authority established for this purpose in the State of origin due to having submitted false declarations or false documentation in tender procedures and subcontracting awards or in any case that any such listing has expired;
– the company and the persons of which it consists must not be present in and must not be part of organisations present in the lists of reference relating to the financial fight against terrorism (published by the Financial Intelligence Unit in the relevant Member State);
– be in possession of all technical and professional suitability requirements envisaged by the legislation on occupational safety in force in the State of origin;
– comply with national collective bargaining agreements and contracts as well as regional, local or company agreements, where signed, stipulated by the trade unions of employers and employees that are comparatively most representative at national level;
– comply with the obligations on insurance, social security and welfare envisaged by current regulations;
– ensure compliance with the requirements detailed in the Technical Specifications;
– have proven experience of several years in commercial distribution services for publishing and/or commercial products within the newsstand and/or large-scale retail trade channels, acquired on behalf of operators in the publishing or commercial sector.
Participation in the expression of interest does not constitute proof of possession of the requirements that must be met for this assignment.
Possession of the self-declared requirements must be confirmed at the time of participation in the competitive procedure and will in any case always be verified by Rai Com.
DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES
Commercial distribution services within the newsstand and large-scale retail trade channels of the following publishing and commercial products:
– publishing products: Magazines/journals, books, diaries, etc., with a frequency to be determined for each individual initiative
– publishing products with gadgets (including, but not limited to, Flowpack, Partwork, etc.) and, more generally, licensing and merchandising products, with a frequency to be determined for each individual initiative.
The attached technical specifications detail the characteristics of the Services requested above.
TERM
The duration of the Services and of the related agreement with the selected Supplier will run from 7 August 2026 to 31 December 2028.
On its expiry, the contract shall be tacitly renewed until 6 August 2030, unless terminated by either party by written notice to the other at least 180 (one hundred and eighty) days prior to said expiry.
It is understood that, upon termination of the contract for any reason whatsoever, the Supplier shall be exclusively obliged to complete the distribution activities relating to the publishing and commercial products whose introduction into the distribution circuit (newsstand and large-scale retail trade channels) was initiated during the term of the contract, including any activities attendant on the management of the distribution cycle until its natural conclusion.
Following expiry of the contract, no new publishing initiatives may be started or further distribution services applied for, without prejudice to the completion of the distribution cycles already started during the term of the contractual relationship.
ESTIMATED TOTAL VALUE OF SERVICES
The total estimated value of the Services, calculated for the entire term of the contract (including its tacit renewal, as applicable), shall be €858,000.00 (eight hundred and fifty-eight thousand/00 euro) plus VAT, i.e. €214,500.00 (two hundred and fourteen thousand five hundred/00 euro) for each year of the term of the contract.
The aforementioned value is to be understood as all-inclusive and thus covering any expenses incurred to meet the requirements of the technical specifications in compliance with current legislation on the matter.
SUBCONTRACTING
It is expressly and mandatorily prohibited to use subcontracting.
AWARD CRITERION
The assignment will be awarded on the basis of the lowest price. In particular, the contract will be awarded to the company that shall have lowered the percentages due to the tenderer the most with respect to annual turnover brackets, to be better specified in the document titled “Prices in support of the assessment”, which will be made available at the time of the start of said assessment and enclosed with the contract stipulated with the winning supplier.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
The final deadline for submitting the expression of interest is the day of 17th April 2026 at the time of 11:00 a.m..
Once the deadline has elapsed, no further expression of interest will be considered valid, even if it replaces or supplements any previous expression of interest.
If an expression of interest is submitted by the same company to replace, correct or supplement a previous expression of interest that did not meet the requirements, the date and time of receipt of the last expression sent will prevail.
DEADLINE FOR CLARIFICATION REQUESTS
Any clarification requests regarding this Notice may be sent no later than 11:00 a.m. on 7th April 2026 in writing and in Italian, by email to the address: quesiti.acquistiraicommerciale@rai.it.
Replies to clarification requests will be sent by email no later than the day of 13th April 2026.
PROCEDURE FOR SUBMITTING EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
Expressions of interest, produced using the Declaration Form (Annex 1 to this Notice), must be signed by the legal representative or by the competent company attorney, attaching a scanned image of a valid identity document. Expressions of interest should only be sent to the following certified email address: acquisti.raicom@postacertificata.rai.it or for foreign companies, by recorded delivery letter with notice of receipt to the following address: Rai Com S.p.A., Via Umberto Novaro n. 18 – 00195 Roma.
When submitting the expression of interest, the interested party must strictly indicate the following subject in the certified email message: “EXPRESSION OF INTEREST IN THE ASSIGNMENT OF COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION SERVICES WITHIN THE NEWSSTAND AND LARGE-SCALE RETAIL TRADE CHANNELS FOR PUBLISHING AND COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS”.
The sender is solely responsible for ensuring that the expression of interest is submitted on time. Rai Com declines all liability for any lack of receipt, by the set deadline, of the expression of interest.
Declarations of expression of interest will not be considered admissible if the submission procedures indicated above are not respected.
As this is a market search aimed at identifying economic operators interested in participating in the competitive procedure referred to in the subject, no offers must be submitted at this stage but only expressions of interest, according to the application form attached to this notice.
PERSONAL DATA PROCESSING
Pursuant to Regulation EU no. 2016/679 and current Italian legislation (Legislative Decree 196/2003 as amended by Legislative Decree no. 101/2018), the personal data declared by each competitor will be processed by Rai Com, as data controller, to assess the suitability of the competitors to participate in any competitive procedure. To view the privacy policy, see the “Policy on the processing of personal data for suppliers” available on the Rai Com website at the following link: http://www.raicom.rai.it/ /privacy-policy/.
CODE OF ETHICS AND ORGANISATION MODEL PURSUANT TO ITALIAN LEGISLATIVE DECREE 231/01 AND ANTI-CORRUPTION LEGISLATION
This notice is published in full compliance with the Code of Ethics and the Organisation Model pursuant to Italian Legislative Decree no. 231/01 adopted by Rai Com pursuant to the regulations in force and available on the website www.raicom.rai.it in the section “The Company” – “Statute and Regulations”.