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On 22 August 2008, the General Direction for Cinema, according to the provisions of the third paragraph of Article 88 of the EC Treaty, formally notified the European Commission of new measures containing fiscal incentives for film production and distribution companies. The relevant paragraph - which deals with State aid - indeed provides that, “The Commission shall be informed, in sufficient time to enable it to submit its comments, of any plans to grant or alter aid. If it considers that any such plan is not compatible with the common market having regard to Article 87, it shall without delay...

In its Deliberation of 24 September 2008, the Italian Autorità per la Garanzia nelle Comunicazioni (Communications Authority - AGCOM), issued an Interpretative communication concerning several aspects of television advertising rules aimed at clarifying the criteria it follows in the application of certain rules concerning television advertising, in the context of its monitoring and enforcement powers. From the preamble to the Deliberation, it becomes apparent that it is intended, inter alia, to align the rules with the European Commission's interpretation of some provisions of the Television Without...

Some recent judgments by the Italian Corte di Cassazione (Court of Cassation) have brought to the fore the division among Italian criminal courts over the interpretation of the judgment delivered by the European Court of Justice in case C-20/05 Schwibbert, dealing with the obligation to affix the SIAE marking to compact discs for the purposes of marketing them within the Italian territory. The Italian Copyright Statute, Law No 633 of 22 April 1941, laid down the mandatory requirement of affixing a distinctive sign bearing the initials of the Italian Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori (Society...

On 6 June 2008, the Italian Parliament converted into law the Decree-Law no. 59/2008 aiming at solving pending infringement procedures with regard to Community law. One of the procedures concerns the ineffectiveness, according to article 3, paragraph 2, of the Directive Television without Frontiers, of the existing provisions regulating the sanctioning procedures to be applied in case of violations of provisions on advertising. The Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Italy on 11 December 2007, pointing out that the height of the sanctions appeared not to be sufficiently dissuasive and...

The Italian Parliament converted the decreto-legge (draft law) n. 59/2008 into Act 101/2008, embodying urgent provisions for the fulfillment of European Community obligations. Recently, on 10 September 2008, the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, according to the provisions of article 8 novies, paragraph V of the mentioned draft law n. 59/2008, signed a Ministerial Act, which contains the timetable for analogue switch-off. In fact, the measure – in order to pursue complete digitisation by 31 December 2012, as required by Italian Law n. 222/2007 – sets a plan for a gradual transition to digital...