Declaration of outbreak

The spread of the coronavirus in Italy and the consequent urgent measures adopted by the Government have imposed limits on the operations of companies and in some cases even the temporary closure of the latter.

The companies working in the export system (and not only), due to the considerable restrictions in circulation imposed by almost all national governments, risk paying expansive penalties resulting from contractual breaches caused by the imposition of these restrictive measures.

To deal with this situation, the Ministry of Economic Development, at the request of Confindustria, issued a Newsletter on 25 March. This Newsletter states that “at the request of the company, the locally competent Chambers of Commerce, within the powers granted to them by law, may issue declarations in English (a document supporting international trade) concerning the state of emergency in Italy following the Covid-19 emergency and the restrictions imposed by law to contain the epidemic“.

Therefore, companies may request a so-called “declaration of outbreak” from the territorially competent Chamber of Commerce, which certifies that the applicant company was unable to fulfil its contractual obligations due to the imposition of these restrictive measures and not, therefore, due to facts dependent on its own will.

It is important to clarify that the declaration issued by the Chamber of Commerce is not sufficient alone to exempt the company exhibiting this declaration from any responsibility for not fulfill the contract. It is therefore aimed at activating the force majeure clause. But the latter, in order to be invoked, requires, however, that a causal link between the failure to comply and the unforeseeable event is proved.