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lifeinitaly.com: January 15, 2010
CONSUMERS ASK GOVERNMENT FOR BILLIONS IN CLASS ACTION SUITS
(ANSA) - Rome, January 15 - Italian consumer union Codacons on Friday filed three class action suits against the government asking for billions of euros in damages for alleged disservices in health care, public safety and education.
The suits were filed the same day a long-delayed law allowing joint legal action came into effect.
Codacon's first claim is against the Italian Health Ministry, which the group says wasted 186 million euros of the tax payers' money on a ''failed vaccination'' campaign against the H1N1 flu virus.
Last fall, the health ministry ordered some 24 million doses of the vaccine with the objective of inoculating 40% of the population by April.
Fewer than 870,000 people have turned out take the shot so far as the initial panic over the virus has largely faded. The consumer group accused the government of blowing the H1N1 pandemic out of proportion and ''wasting a fantastic amount of money'' in the process.
Codacons says the government ought to reimburse all 60 million people signed up for the national healthcare plan three euros each for the cost of the vaccine plus 50 euros in damages for a total payout of 9.3 billion euros.
The second suit is directed at the civil protection agency and local government in nine towns around the country reported to be at flood risk.
The group says administrators should pay the towns' 75,000 residents 100,000 euros each to protect their homes from flooding or pack up and move.
A number of towns and cities were flooded in Italy last year, most recently in December along the Italian Riviera where officials in Liguria and Tuscany are estimating damages in excess of 150 million euros.
In October, over 37 people were killed in mudslides near the Sicilian city of Messina, largely as a result of unsafe building and inadequate infrastructure, according to Civil Protection chief Guido Bertolaso.
Bertolaso estimated last month that seven in ten towns and cities in Italy are at flood risk.
Codacons filed its third class action suit against the Education Ministry for overcrowded classrooms with more than the 25 students prescribed by law.
The consumer group says the ministry ought to pay the family of every student in a ''chicken coop'' class 250 euros in addition to a tax rebate.
''This is to compensate for the health and safety risk of cramming 35 to 40 students into a single classroom,'' said Codacons, whose rough calculations put the total damages over one million euros.
Class action law suits are most common in the United States where they have resulted in huge payouts against big firms like the tobacco company Phillip Morris.
But critics of the Italian law say the current version has been watered down since its passage three years ago by the center-left government under ex-premier Romano Prodi and that comparable wins will be hard to come in Italy.
Nonetheless, Antitrust Authority president Antonio Catricala' last week urged consumer groups rearing to file their suits not to "spoil" the new tool with frivolous cases.
lifeinitaly.com: January 15, 2010
CONSUMERS ASK GOVERNMENT FOR BILLIONS IN CLASS ACTION SUITS
(ANSA) - Rome, January 15 - Italian consumer union Codacons on Friday filed three class action suits against the government asking for billions of euros in damages for alleged disservices in health care, public safety and education.
The suits were filed the same day a long-delayed law allowing joint legal action came into effect.
Codacon's first claim is against the Italian Health Ministry, which the group says wasted 186 million euros of the tax payers' money on a ''failed vaccination'' campaign against the H1N1 flu virus.
Last fall, the health ministry ordered some 24 million doses of the vaccine with the objective of inoculating 40% of the population by April.
Fewer than 870,000 people have turned out take the shot so far as the initial panic over the virus has largely faded. The consumer group accused the government of blowing the H1N1 pandemic out of proportion and ''wasting a fantastic amount of money'' in the process.
Codacons says the government ought to reimburse all 60 million people signed up for the national healthcare plan three euros each for the cost of the vaccine plus 50 euros in damages for a total payout of 9.3 billion euros.
The second suit is directed at the civil protection agency and local government in nine towns around the country reported to be at flood risk.
The group says administrators should pay the towns' 75,000 residents 100,000 euros each to protect their homes from flooding or pack up and move.
A number of towns and cities were flooded in Italy last year, most recently in December along the Italian Riviera where officials in Liguria and Tuscany are estimating damages in excess of 150 million euros.
In October, over 37 people were killed in mudslides near the Sicilian city of Messina, largely as a result of unsafe building and inadequate infrastructure, according to Civil Protection chief Guido Bertolaso.
Bertolaso estimated last month that seven in ten towns and cities in Italy are at flood risk.
Codacons filed its third class action suit against the Education Ministry for overcrowded classrooms with more than the 25 students prescribed by law.
The consumer group says the ministry ought to pay the family of every student in a ''chicken coop'' class 250 euros in addition to a tax rebate.
''This is to compensate for the health and safety risk of cramming 35 to 40 students into a single classroom,'' said Codacons, whose rough calculations put the total damages over one million euros.
Class action law suits are most common in the United States where they have resulted in huge payouts against big firms like the tobacco company Phillip Morris.
But critics of the Italian law say the current version has been watered down since its passage three years ago by the center-left government under ex-premier Romano Prodi and that comparable wins will be hard to come in Italy.
Nonetheless, Antitrust Authority president Antonio Catricala' last week urged consumer groups rearing to file their suits not to "spoil" the new tool with frivolous cases.
