News On The Guidelines On The (Heavily Regulated) Prize Competitions

In the last days the Ministry of Economic Development (the "Ministry") released a new update to the "Frequently Asked Questions" issued on March 30, 2017 ("FAQ") – and, since then, already amended several times – providing for some Ministry's guidelines on the interpretation of the provisions of the Presidential Decree of October 26, 2001, no. 430 concerning prize competitions (the "Decree").

By way of background, the Decree – which is an Italian peculiar piece of law and does not implement any EU Directive – defines "prize contests" as promotional activities where the attribution of the prizes basically depends on the chance or the ability/skills of the entrants, and "prize operations" as promotional activities in which a prize basically is assigned to consumers who either sell or buy a determined product/service or a certain amount of them.