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On 16 December 2020, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court (TAR Lazio - Roma) delivered Judgment No. 13958, which followed up on the landmark decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union dated 3 September 2020 in Case C-719/18. The case originated from the disputed legal status of Vivendi, a French company holding at the same time a 23.9% stake in Telecom Italia (the leading Italian telecommunications company) and 28.8% of the share capital, as well as 29.94% of the voting rights in shareholders’ meetings of Mediaset (the leading Italian private broadcaster). Through Resolution...

On 15 October 2020, Andrea Orlando, a member of the Chamber of Deputies and former Minister of Justice, introduced to Parliament a new bill (No. 2723) which aims to amend the parts of the Audiovisual Media Services Code (Legislative Decree No. 177 of 31 July 2005) which regulate Italian public service broadcasting (namely RAI). The proposed measures are intended to reform specifically the governance of the public service broadcaster. The most important aspect of the reform lies with the introduction of an ad-hoc foundation: the Ministry of the Economy and Finance shall transfer to the newly-established...

On 29 October 2020, the Senate of the Italian Republic approved the text of the 2019 European Delegation Law, a legislative instrument by which the parliament delegates powers to the government to transpose EU directives into the Italian legal system. Following its approval by the other parliamentary chamber (the Camera), which is expected by the end of 2020, the text will become binding, leading the way for the long-awaited process of transposing the previous year's EU legislation. The 2019 European Delegation Law refers to 38 European directives, including Directive 2018/1808 (AVMSD). Article...

The Constitutional Affairs Committee of the Senate of the Italian Republic is currently discussing a bill (No. 1900) aimed at establishing a parliamentary committee of inquiry to investigate the problem of disinformation and, more precisely, the dissemination on a massive scale of fake news. It is well known that Italian lawmakers and regulators have already attempted to introduce some measures to counter the spread of disinformation on the Internet; however, none of the initiatives undertaken so far have reached the approval stage, triggering a lot of criticism (see IRIS Special on media coverage...

On 3 September 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) - Case C‑719/18 - ruled that the provision of Article 43, paragraph 11 of the TUSMAR (Consolidated Law on Media Services) is contrary to EU law, constituting a restriction on freedom of establishment while not being suitable for achieving the objective of the protection of pluralism of information. According to the said provision, adopted in 2005, it is forbidden for any company whose revenues in the electronic communications sector (including those obtained through subsidiary or affiliated companies) exceed 40% of the overall...