As one door opens...another closes

Advocate General Kokott gave her opinion in Rosalba Alassini (Environment and consumers: C-317/08–C-320/08) dealing with Italy’s implementation of the Universal Service Directive (a directive on universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic communications networks, Directive 2002/22/EC). 

For those with an obscure fascination in the dealings of the Italian electronic communications networks this article is likely to come as something of a disappointment. It is concerned purely with the legality of a procedural requirement adopted in Italy restricting the rights of end-users to bring claims against service providers to court. Italy in implementing the Universal Service Directive—which requires an out-of-court settlement procedure—decided to introduce a mandatory requirement that any end-user wishing to bring a claim against a service provider is obliged first to go through an out-of-court disputes process to try to achieve a settlement. If they do not they are barred from presenting a claim to the court. The end-users in these cases were complaining that the courts’ refusal to hear their