Categoria: ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS

On Agenda Digitale, an in-depth article by Daniela De Pasquale focuses on Directive 790/19 on copyright and related rights in the digital single market, and the so-called ‘value gap,’ which refers to the disparity between the perceived value by creators of journalistic content and the value obtained by intermediaries who distribute such content online.

As evidenced by the recent clash between Meta and SIAE, the relationship between content providers and online platforms remains challenging. Back in 2019, Directive 790 was met with great controversy, having to establish a delicate balance between the needs to protect freedom of information, expression, and creativity and those of content provider businesses; similarly, protests followed the implementation decree of the Directive in 2021, which definitively established a principle of liability for platforms that, after being informed, used copyrighted content without authorization due to their users’ public communication of protected works, risking potential content censorship as a result of abuse of remedies available to rights holders.

In this article, we delve into the procedures for calculating fair compensation for media editors proposed by platforms.

For further reading, the full article is available here.

On Global Competition Review, an article by Filippo Mazza about the use of “golden power” by the Italian government in the current historical period.
Italy seems to be experiencing an unprecedented wave of national protectionism to curtail foreign investments by means of the Golden Power Legislation, which came into force in 2012 and allows the government to limit or stop investments involving strategic assets in defence and critical infrastructure sectors.
Despite being operational for more than a decade, the legislation has significantly expanded its scope in recent times, following the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
While Italy is steadily recovering from the covid-19 pandemic and is currently the leading EU country in terms of GDP growth, foreign investors are expressing concerns over unprecedented government control. The Italian government is using in fact this legislation to more effectively protect Italian strategic assets from potentially hostile actors during a period of significant geopolitical challenges.
The full in-depth analysis of the procedures and areas of application of the golden power, as well as key interventions by the Italian government, is available to subscribers here.

Starting from the second half of 2020, due to the pandemic, climate change and the energy crisis caused by the Ukrainian war, the energy sector, especially renewable energy, has acquired a leading position in the Italian legislative landscape.

An important input can certainly be ascribed to the opportunities provided by the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), which, in dedicating a significant chapter to Energy, mandated the implementation of several reforms aimed at harmonizing and simplifying the authorization procedures for the construction of energy production plants.

Our Tiziana Fiorella, interviewed by ItaliaOggi on the topic of Energy, PNRR, and the green transition, commented: “[…] Despite the declared intention of simplification, the rapid succession of numerous decrees (Simplifications, Aid, Energy, Bills, PNRR), through which the regulatory framework for renewable energy has been modified and supplemented, has resulted in fragmented legislative interventions that are not always consistent, often difficult to understand, and challenging to apply for operators. The current regulatory framework, far from achieving actual simplification, appears to have become considerably more complex due to the lack of an organic and coordinated body of regulations. We hope that in the near future, the legislator will intervene once again, standardizing the applicable laws in the Energy sector in order to facilitate operators in entrepreneurial initiatives that require clear, unambiguous, and certain rules they can rely on.”

The full focus is available here

The Italian Government is increasingly determined to attract new foreign investment: as early as the Draghi government, a strategic foreign investors fund had been set up.

Our Andrea Marega, among the professionals interviewed by ItaliaOggi, commented on the de-bureaucratization measures drawn by the Meloni government and, in particular, on the one that gives the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy the exercise of substitutive powers in cases of inertia of central administrations in procedures related to investments of at least 25 million euros with significant employment spin-offs: “[. …] The novelties introduced by the so-called “Decreto Aiuti” (Aid Decree) thus aim to unblock projects, construction sites, incentive measures or facilities that fail completion because stuck in the quicksand of bureaucracy.

However valuable the measures are, they suffer, among others, the limitation of the applicability of substitutive powers only to central administrations. The Regions, which (in Italy) are the expression of primary legislative power, but at the same time of local interests, often slow down and stop projects that are crucial for the production system. This is also due to the complex allocation of legislative power between State and Regions in terms of subject matter as drawn up by Title V of the Constitution […].”

The full focus is available here

On Agenda Digitale, an article by Daniela De Pasquale and Massimiliano Pappalardo on the new threat of AI: data leaks, i.e. the loss of confidential data and information.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has hit our lives like a meteor, bringing an incredible range of new features and tools but also risks that are far from negligible: after the danger of copyright infringement, the manipulative potential of deepfakes, and the fallibility of ChatGPT output, now the news events of the last few weeks tell us about important data leaks, a further consequence of the systemic vulnerabilities of AIs.

But how can we avoid them? And what tools can we use to protect our personal data?

The full article is available here

Italy has exercised its “golden power” law to clear Whirlpool’s majority stake sale of its European domestic appliances business to Turkish rival Arcelik, reportedly conditioned on remedies aimed at safeguarding technological assets, production facilities and employment.

Our partner Filippo Mazza, interviewed on this point by GCR, stated that “the Italian government has probably scrutinised more China-related deals than others because Chinese corporations have made so many investments in the past few years. But whenever an Italian strategic asset is at the heart of a transaction, it will be subject to government review and authorization regardless of the country involved.

The full article is available for subscribers at the following link

The case is relevant and is holding the headlines in national and international newspapers.

Global Competition Review as well featured an article on the ‘golden power’ exercised by the Italian government to block the acquisition of the company Tecnologia Intelligente by Nebius, a Dutch-based cloud services provider that seems to be supported by the Russian giant Yandex, Russia’s main online services provider.This is the first case of ‘golden power’ exercised by the Meloni government to block undesirable bids in sectors deemed to be of strategic importance.

Our Partner Filippo Mazza, interviewed on the point by GCR, said “this decision largely aligns with the government’s amendment of its golden power law to cover 5G and cloud services last (2022) March. While this is the first time Italy has blocked a deal since Meloni became prime minister, the government has largely been applying the golden power in the same way as it did under Draghi. It is not likely that her government’s approach will be drastically different. The government has been actively using its powers to intervene in foreign investment, including by imposing conditions on KKR and Global Investment Partners’ joint investment in Inwit, a leading 5G technology provider. It is also due to issue a final decision on the sale of Lukoil’s oil refining plant in Sicily to Cypriot private equity fi rm GOI Energy by30 June”.

The full article is available for subscribers at this link.