Together we get lost. Consumer associations in Veneto have decreed the failure of the class actions. Both those against public companies and those against private companies. In the Northeast, in particular, some former shareholders of Banca Popolare di Vicenza and of Veneto Banca have adopted the procedure of incorporation in civil part. Lawyers and associations, however, are now resigned on collective cases: “It’s all useless.”
The concept of class action is simple: one against many. The reference article and 140 bis of the consumer code, introduced in 2009. Starting from the following year, the class actions, in Veneto, concerned vaccines, pollution, asbestos, train delays, gambling. Until 12 June, when the consumers’ association intervened in the columns of the Corriere del Veneto, the collective cases achieved little results: the proceedings were often closed and forgotten in the court archives.
Aduca, the consumer association of which the lawyer Emmanuela Bertucci is responsible, denounced the uselessness of the class actions. “You often shout at class action just because it’s a fashion, but we don’t do it anymore,” she explained. “Setting up a collective cause and pursuing the requests is expensive: just think that, in the event of a victory against the public administration or against a private company, the association must publish a victory notice page in all newspapers national, so that consumers can recognize themselves among the injured, present themselves to the association and have their rights recognized before the judge. The associates », Bertucci continued,« pay a registration fee to the consumers’ association, but it is not enough to cover the expenses and there is no one who sacrifices himself for the good of the community ».
There is a substantial difference between the class action and the civil constitution: the first is promoted by consumers against an obvious disservice, while a civil party is constituted by a small circle of consumers who have suffered damage in a real and proper process. Last March, the Treviso lawyer Sergio Calvetti , who represents over 4 thousand shareholders and 600 million euros in shares, announced a legal initiative by the committees representing the shareholders of Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca. Calvetti proposed the establishment of a civil party in the criminal proceedings asking for a sort of entrance fee of about 300 euros to activate the practice and 15% of the eventual sum recovered.
“The legislation on class action can only be initiated by the consumer, as the shareholders of the banks are not qualified as consumers and, moreover, they only have theoretically homogeneous cases, but not entirely, therefore a subject cannot represent a plurality of infringed rights” , Calvetti stressed. Lawyers try the same, even if winning is almost impossible and the payoff is small. Calvetti, for example, collects the support of hundreds of people by presenting a single complaint to the judicial authority.
“This allows the division of costs by the number of members and the minimum cost for each”, he specified. Other lawyers, on the other hand, choose to be paid only in case of victory. Which rarely happens. “The results come if there are solvent subjects,” added Calvetti. “In this case, justice has made it possible to obtain compensation”.
