ITALY MAY ALLOW CLASS ACTIONS, BUT WITH AN ADR TWIST

摘要

Italy's Senate in November approved a bill that permits, for the first time, class action cases. But there's a twist: the proposal requires litigants to go through a conciliation process after the court battle, to quantify damages that would be paid to individual consumers. The bill was sent to Italy's Parliament for debate and final passage as Alternatives went to press at year end. Changes were likely. But if a bill emerges, explains Riccar-do Buizza, a partner in the Milan, Italy, office of Piergrossi Bianchini Eversheds, the ADR process is likely to survive. "There is a strong drive in the Italian judicial system to introduce conciliation procedures," he writes in an E-mail, "so I believe this part will definitively stay."