Italy - Time Bars

Contracts of carriage

In General
One year or 18 months, the longer time bar being applicable where the carriage starts or ends outside Europe (Art. 2951 Civil Code). The time bar starts to run from the day the goods arrived or should have arrived at destination and is prescrizione, therefore it can be avoided by a notice of claim, which will make a fresh time bar period start to run.

By Sea
Six months or one year, the longer time bar being applicable where the place of loading or that of destination is outside Europe or the Mediterranean (Art. 438 Code of Navigation). The time bar starts to run from the day the goods arrived or should have arrived at destination and is prescrizione, therefore it can be avoided by a notice of claim, which will make a fresh time bar period start to run.

If the contract if subject to the Hague Visby Rules, the one year time bar under Art.3.6 will apply.

All claims arising out of a contract of carriage or sub-carriage, including cargo claims, must be submitted to an alternative dispute resolution procedure called “negoziazione assistita” before they can be pursued in court proceedings.  In other words, this procedure is a precondition for potential subsequent court proceedings.  In lack of this procedure, the Judge will stay the court proceedings and order the parties to carry out the procedure.  The invitation to negoziazione assistita interrupts any time bar, including the Hague Visby Rules one year time limit.  In a recent decision in a cargo claim case (GFS International Ltd. v. Ignazio Messina & C Spa and others, Tribunal of Genova, 04.06.2018), the Tribunal of Genova held that if the invitation to negoziazione assistita is rejected or not accepted or the procedure failed, court proceedings must be commenced within 30 days, and not within any remaining time of the original time bar.  However, this is an unprecedented decision of a lower court, therefore we must wait for this rule to be affirmed by higher courts before considering it as settled case law.

Combined Transport
The position is unsettled due to conflicting case law.  In some decisions, our Court of Cassation ruled that a combined transport, even where the sea stage of the carriage is predominant, is not subject to the Hague Visby Rules, but is governed by the Civil Code.  Therefore, the time bars are one year or 18 months under Art. 2951 Civil Code.

In other decisions, our Court of Cassation held that if the stage of the carriage where the loss or damage occurred is known, then the law of that stage should apply. Therefore, if it is known that the loss or damage occurred during the sea carriage, the law and relevant time bar of the law governing the carriage by sea should apply.