Port and Terminal Operations in Italy

Abstract

The organization, functions and regime of Italian ports have recently deeply modified by the enhancement of the Law 28.01.1999 n. 84. Such bill passed after decades of substantial uncontested State control on harbors, mainly deriving from an anachronistic approach to the subject matter of State regulations of coastal areas of military and economical importance. The new bill recently enacted by the Italian Parliament sets forth new rules of reclassification of the existing ports. The new law goes further to fix parameters and objectives for the modernization and development of the existing ports and harbor infrastructures. The first attack to the provisions of the new law on ports’ came on the 23rd October 1995 when the national Steering Committee of Port Operators, on behalf of a private stevedoring company of the port of Brindisi (Brindisi Imbarchi&Sbarchi Srl, hereinafter “BIF”) denounced to the Italian Antitrust Commissions (Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato-“I.A.C.”), an institution created in Italy with the Law 10th October 1990 n. 287, some unfair conducts of the Brindisi PSC Stevdoring Company (the local “PSC”). An official opinion rendered by the Italian Supreme Administrative Court (Consiglio di Stato) on the 30th August 1996 is the occasion to briefly draw the distinction between port operations and port services in the Italian and EU legislation.