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With decisions issued respectively on 4 June and 11 October 1996 the Tribunals of Rome and Milan have replied negatively to the request of two different Consumer Associations to impose the broadcasters the respect of the directive. In the first case, the Tribunal of Rome, although considering that the Association had locus standi before the Court, decided that the Directive was not directly applicable in the case at hand, because it had no "horizontal effects' (i.e. it could not be enforced against a private entity if not correctly implemented). In the second case the Tribunal of Milan reached...

Another change in the assignment broadcasting rights of football games in Italy. As the readers of IRIS will remember ( see IRIS 1996-4:13; IRIS 1996-5:14), the rights had been assigned in February 1996 for the first time to the Cecchi Gori Group, which controls two national channels ( Telemontecarlo and Telemontecarlo 2 ) but reaches a very limited audience (about 5%). In the following April the Italian Football League revoked the three years assignment because the winner of the bid did not comply with the conditions set out in the contract, since it did not deposit the guarantee sum required...

A law passed on 23 December 1996 (No 650), enacted to convert into law some government decrees issued during the course of the year, includes several provisions concerning the activities of broadcasters in Italy. The most relevant provisions are the following: Corte (i) Art. 1 of Law No 650 postpones once more the deadline for the application of the ruling of the Costituzionale which declared the position of the Berlusconi Group ( Mediaset ) incompatible with the principle of pluralism enshrined in Art. 21 of the Constitution. According to the Court, the Mediaset (formerly Fininvest ) Group should...

On 23 October 1996, the Italian Government approved a Decree to transpose the Council Directive 93/89 of 27 September 1993 on the coordination of certain rules concerning copyright and rights related to copyright applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission the Cable and Satellite Directive'). The Decree amends the relevant rules of the general Italian Copyright Act ( legge No 633 of 22 April 1941). In particular, the Decree amends Article 16 of the Copyright Act, which relates to the exclusive right of the copyright owner to distribute his work ( diritto di diffusione ). This...

The Italian Parliament is considering a new Bill introduced by the Government in order to regulate both television and telecommunications activities. According to the Government's view, the convergence of the telecoms and TV sectors requires a common approach; therefore the whole system of communications is concerned by the new rules. The Bill complements the one concerning antitrust issues and the institution of an Independent Authority ( see IRIS 1996-9:13). Title I states the general principles inspiring the new legislation: freedom of expression, pluralism, protection of viewers and consumers....