FOLLOW-UP: AFTER BEEFING UP ADR, ITALY ALLOWS CLASS ACTIONS

摘要

Class actions were authorized by the Italian Parliament at year end, with the final legislative passage of the nations 2008 budget. The Dec. 24 approval also backed an unusual ADR facility to administer class action payments, institutionalizing a unique conflict resolution process into the legislative scheme. The proposed bill, and its ADR spin, were reported last month in "Italy May Allow Class Actions, But With an ADR Twist," 1 Alternatives 11 (January 2008). Riccardo Buizza, a partner in the Milan, Italy, office of Piergrossi Bianchini Eversheds who has produced papers on the bill and the new law, states in an E-mail that the conflict resolution provisions that came out of the process turned out stronger than those in the original proposal. His firm is a member of London-based international law firm Eversheds International Ltd.