La nuova disciplina delle relazioni commerciali e dei contratti di cessione di prodotti agricoli e agroalimentari : note a prima lettura

This essay is an analysis of the new Italian law about agricultural and food products’ sale contracts and commercial relationships introduced by art. 62 decree 24 January 2012 n. 1 and its regulative provisions. Besides a rough sketch of the content of the new law, it is individuated its spatial and material sphere of application. Then it is portrayed the Italian legislation about agricultural and food supply chains in force since the Nineties and the current trends of Italian contract law with regard to enterprises’ nettings and commercial contracts. Therefore, it is presented some special features of agricultural products’ and food’s markets in Italy and some main market’s failures of the systems of production and distribution of these goods. In the last paragraphs it is investigated the requirements of form and the minimum content of agricultural products and food contracts according to art. 62 above mentioned; and it is discussed which remedy shall be granted by the parties. Then it is described the rules and principles against the unfair commercial practices stated by the new law. At the end, it is presented the rules about the terms of payment and the interests for delay, according to art. 62 and the provisions stated by d.lgs. 231/2002, as recently modified by d.lgs. 192/2011.