The Italian Parliament has recently added Article 140 bis to the Consumer Code which contains provisions governing the conduct of class actions in Italy.

Article 140 bis is generally considered to be a radical change to the Italian legal system because previously, Italian law did not provide for class actions.

Four types of consumer claims may be considered as the basis of a Class Action: (i) reimbursement or damage compensation with respect to infringement of certain (one-sided or standard form) contracts; (ii) damages suffered as a consequence of a defective product (regardless of contractual relationship); (iii) damages suffered as a result of unfair commercial practice and (iv) damages suffered as a result of anti-competitive activity.

Under Italian law, collective actions may be brought by individual class members, consumers associations and councils as well.

The law provides for an opt-in system, meaning that the court decision will be binding only for opting-in consumers: each individual will maintain his own right to access the courts either by joining the proceedings in the traditional fashion or by way of separate proceedings. This provision is one of the main differences from US class actions and, in the next future, might cause confusion between the various actions carried out.

Italy's new class action legislation came into force on January 1, 2010. In order to anticipate our clients’ needs, we had already established a team of experts in this area.

The law was meant to broaden the kinds of plaintiffs who could bring now class actions in Italy. Unlike laws in some other countries that allow punitive damages to be awarded in class-action lawsuits, the Italian law permits only compensatory awards.

We are currently assisting several foreign corporations acting in Italy in order to manage the class action risk and to implement preliminary defensive activities.

The team uses our collective expertise in assisting our corporate clients in business-to-consumer (B2C) disputes and consumer litigation in order to provide comprehensive protection against class actions.

Our recent experience in this area includes:

  • disputes on regulatory issues regarding alleged unfair business practices against consumers
  • a large group of B2C disputes involving multinational companies