Italian e-commerce closed by law 12 days a year? Many doubts

Italian e-commerce sites might have to close for 12 days each year. How to implement such a change?

There is perplexity in the Italian e-commerce sector these hours. Confirmation and – hopefully – corrections are awaited regarding a law under discussion at the moment which could impose stringent conditions on Italian online stores.
A bill approved by the Chamber of Deputies would indeed impose a closure of 12 days a year – a minimum – for all Italian stores.
However, the text does not exclude e-commerce sites or vending machines: an oversight that could greatly affect these types of sales.
Indeed, the question arises as to how to “blackout” an e-commerce site based in Italy for 12 days a year, thus having to “close” a virtual storefront that exists yet is no longer legally acceptable for a certain number of days.
The very nature of the type of commerce in question would by itself be distorted, questioned, and effectively forcibly changed.
This is well explained by Roberto Liscia, president of Netcomm (the Italian E-commerce Consortium), as reported in a statement by La Stampa: “The e-commerce sector cannot be subject to regulation in this regard, as by its nature it is an activity that can be carried out 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Furthermore, by definition, e-commerce relates to transactions that do not take place at a physical point of sale, making it impossible to apply this proposed regulation”.
Essentially, the bill aims to oblige closure during the 12 national holidays or closure during 6 holidays plus another 6 chosen days.
What could be the outcomes of such a reform on e-commerce sites?
Probably consumers interested in an online purchase, finding the reference site “closed”, might look for the product elsewhere, diverting their attention to other sites not based in Italy and therefore not subject to this regulation.

Think especially of Amazon, eBay, and similar sites.
Of course, painting a hypothetical scenario for this sector is decidedly difficult and overly ambitious, but what is certain is that the bill should at least make distinctions regarding the different nature of the types of sales channels.
A store is not the same as a vending machine, nor an online site.
Therefore, potential corrections are awaited, or at least the legislative process will be followed to determine the fate of this bill.

Pubblicato in Digital Tools