Italy Legal Issues and Cases - PSI re-use (cadastral and mortgage data)

Background information (published 6 July 2009) - PSI Re-users vs Agenzia del Territorio Directive - PSI Directive 2003/98/EC and European Commission Infringement

 

European Commission Infringement against Italy (19 March 2009) (European PSI Platform News)

The European Commission announced that infringement proceedings have been launched against Italy. The press release (IP/09/425) states:

“The European Commission has opened an infringement case against Italy because several aspects of the PSI Directive have either been incorrectly transposed into Italian law, or have not been transposed at all. One concern is the exclusion of cadastral and mortgage data which includes land register information with details on the ownership, tenure, precise location and boundaries of each parcel of land, as well as the use of real estate as collateral to secure loans. Other missing provisions in Italian law include the scope and definition of re-use, procedural requirements for processing requests for re-use, specific conditions of re-use including available formats and charging, and non-discrimination.

Italy has 2 months to reply to the letter of formal notice. If the Commission receives no reply, or if the observations presented by Italy are not satisfactory, the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion (the second stage in an infringement proceeding). If Italy still fails to fulfil its obligations under EU law after that, the Commission will refer the case to the European Court of Justice.”

 

Legal Cases (PSI Re-users vs Agenzia del Territorio (The Land Registry) – Summaries of 3 Legal Cases (access file)

  • Judgement of the Regional Administrative Tribunal (TAR) of Lazio, 29.03.2006
  • Judgement of the Court of Appeal of Bologna, 03.12.2008
  • Appeal against the Order of the Court of Appeal of Milan, 10.07.2009
 

Italian PSI Re-use meeting (ePSIplus News, February 2009)

The meeting heard about the case of Associazione Consulenti di Informazioni Finanziario-Immobiliari (ACIF) versus the Agenzia del Territorio (The Land Registry). Agenzia del Territorio had launched its own value added service based on cadastral data and at the same time increased the financial charges for re-use by 600%. As a consequence the number of people employed within the existing private sector companies fell by 28% as well as a significant fall in their revenues. The Court found in the favour of the re-users as a result of Agenzia del Territorio unfair competition practices. The first reimbursement to the re-users was reported at the meeting to be in the region of €10 million with the total reimbursement due to re-users for compensation for the lost profit in the region of €30 million. A transcript of the Court hearing has been published by the Università degli Studi di Perugia.

 

Reports by the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (Italian Anti Trust Authority) (Italian Language)