Italy: Compliance

Recently Italian Company Law has been substantially modified by Legislative Decree no. 6/2003, which entered into force on January 1, 2004. This article focuses on the changes made by this legislation ("Reform") to the rules governing the management and representation powers of directors of limited stock companies.

On January 20, 2004, the European Union Council of Ministers approved Council Regulation No. 139/2004 EC Merger Regulation (ECMR), a new merger law that became effective on May 1, 2004, concerning the control of concentrations between undertakings. This new regulation, which replaced Regulation 4064/89, increases the powers of the commission to review and block transactions that have a European Community scope. It also introduces more flexibility to the notification review process.

In recent years, the European Commission (EC) regarded harmonization as a vital element in order to meet the growing need for transparent corporate accounts and the need to compare financial statements thus streamlining the development and efficiency of European financial markets.