Class actions in Italy are governed by law n° 31 issued on 12 April 2019 and came into force on 19 October 2020. The first legislation governing class action dates to 2005, when the legislative decree n° 206/2005 was issued. Such legislative decree contains all the provisions concerning the consumers rights and class actions were part of it. Only consumers (and not professionals or enterprises), even through associations, were entitled to start a class action.
More specific class actions were introduced in 2019 through the mentioned law 31/2019, which came into force on 19 October 2020:
(i) abrogated the provisions of the legislative decree n° 206/2005; (ii) provided for a complete govern of class actions by introducing specific sections (i.e., sections from 840 bis to 840 sexiesdecies) in the Italian code of civil procedure.
The relevant provisions shall apply only to class actions started after such date, whilst the provisions of the legislative decree n° 206/2005 applies to proceedings previously started.
As to the main characteristics of the class action, we observe the following.
(i) Any holders of homogeneous individual rights (not only consumers) are entitled to start a class action, even by means of associations.
(ii) A class action may concern any kind of contractual and non-contractual liability (e.g., environmental damages);
(iii) The procedure is started through a recourse and is divided into 3 phases.
(a) Assessment by the Court of the admissibility of the recourse;
(b) Assessment of the liabilities (facts finding activity) by a judgment and opening of the phase concerning the liquidation of the damages, to which the interested parties may adhere within the term indicated by the court, which must be not less than 60 days and not more than 150 days;
(c) Arrangement of the project of liquidation, by the defendant (losing) party according to the indication of the court.
(iv) The judgment cannot in principle be appealed, except when a case of revocation (i.e., fraudulent conduct of a party; decision based on false evidence; finding of new documents that could not be filed in the proceeding due to a force majeure cause; decision based on a factual error resulting from the documents; decision contrary to a previous res iudicata; fraudulent conduct of the judge) occurs.
(v) The holders of homogeneous individual rights are also entitled (through a very smooth procedure) to apply for an inhibitory order against abusive clauses. The inhibitory application can be filed also together the class action, but the court shall order the separation of the proceedings.
Has the directive been implemented in this jurisdiction?
On 9 December 2022 the Italian Government approved the preliminary draft of the legislative decree which is expected to be issued for implementing the directive.
Is the jurisdiction allowing for an opt-in or opt-out model?
Italian jurisdiction allows an opt-in model
Brief description of major class action cases in Italy:
Cases listed below fall under the current regime and therefore do not relate to the Directive (from the Ministry of Justice website).
Autostrade per l'Italia - Action filed by inhabitants of Liguria against Autostrade per l'Italia (ASPI) for low quality of the management of the motorways network in such region and bad road maintenance programs. It results that such class action was declared inadmissible in November 2022 by the Court of Rome.
Municipality of Rome - Action filed by cleaners of public schools against Municipality of Rome for non-compensated overtime
Zhao Changpeng - Action filed by domestic and internationalinvestors against the companies of the Group Binance (and the relevant directors) which manages cryptocurrency platforms
YMCA Italia Foundation - Action filed by students against a school (YMCA Italia Foundation) for damages due the non-performance of a master to which they were regularly enrolled
Italia Trasporto Aereo - Action filed by female workers (cabin crew) for discrimination against the flight company Italia Trasporto Aereo
Consorzio Bonifica Arneo - Action filed by members against a consortium (Consorzio Arneo) for unlawful request of payment of contribution for land improvements
