On 17 May 2023, the Italian Supreme Court issued its judgment in case No. 13504 (Gessi S.p.A. v Bulthaup GmbH & Co. KG, Bulthaup Italia s.r.l. e Nobilia-Werke J. Stickling GmbH & Co. KG) establishing that the concept of "place where the harmful event occurred" which determines the existence of special jurisdiction in matters relating to tort, delict or quasi-delict according to Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No. 1215 of 12 December 2012 (on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters), is either the place where the harmful conduct was performed or the place where the initial harm occurred. The Court clarified that such place cannot be identified solely based on where the prejudicial consequences of harm occurring elsewhere manifested themselves. Based on this principle, the Court established the lack of Italian jurisdiction in favour of German jurisdiction in relation to an action for the declaration of non-infringement of design rights and lack of unfair competition brought by an Italian company against a German company for having claimed against a German distributor that the products manufactured by the Italian plaintiff were in breach. The Supreme Court noted that the complaints of the German defendant had only been indirectly addressed to the plaintiff, thus no harm could be considered as having occurred in Italy.
Originally published July 2023
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