How do you close a digital store? And how do you send a vending machine on vacation? These are the absurd questions that arise from the law on shop hours currently under discussion in the Senate. The text of the bill already approved in the Chamber in practice takes a step back on the liberalization of shop hours and introduces 12 days of compulsory closure a year. The new law leaves intact the possibility for shops to stay open even 24 hours a day, but obliges them to close on 12 national holidays, only providing for the possibility of replacing 6 with as many days chosen by the shopkeeper.
But what does e-commerce have to do with it? It may seem absurd, but based on the current version of the bill, the new rules would also be valid for 2.0 shops, for e-commerce, but also for vending machines. The flaw in the law on shops would be in article 1 where, among the meanings of the new discipline, the legislator forgot to include e-commerce which by their very nature cannot be closed. Article 1-ter of the law currently under discussion in the Senate Commission reads: “The types of activities referred to in article 13, paragraph 1, of the legislative decree of 31 March 1998, n. 114, and the food and drink administration activities are not subject to any obligation to close on Sundays or holidays". According to the 1998 law, services inside campsites or tourist complexes, located at railway, sea and airport stations, autogrills and other shops specializing in the sale of souvenirs and local handicrafts are also excluded from the legislation. And so, if there is no amendment to article 1 with direct reference to e-commerce, even 2.0 shops will be obliged by law to close at least 12 days a year, without prejudice to the exclusion of distributors who dispense food and drinks.
Net of the technical problems involved in the closure of a site, the trade associations emphasize the negative effect that such an imposition would have on Italian entrepreneurs. The very lively e-commerce sector in other European countries is slowly gaining ground in Italy too: in 2014 the turnover of Italian e-commerce was worth just over 13 billion euros and the obligation to close for 12 days the year would only hurt their growth.
If a user looking for a product comes across an Italian e-commerce closed for holidays, he can't help but change the site and buy from a 2.0 shop based outside the Belpaese. According to the Antitrust, the law on shops is "a step backwards in the already difficult process of liberalization and modernization of the sector". Federdistribuzione is on the same wavelength and criticizes the entire structure of the law: “A restriction of the liberalization on opening hours would have negative effects, which would worsen the service offered to consumers. Furthermore, fewer opening days mean fewer hours worked and therefore less wages distributed and less need for collaborators by the points of sale".
