COVID-19 and Air Transport: Italian Legislative Provisions Alessandra Corrado1 1. Overview of the Measures to Minimise the Spread of the Contagion Adopted by Italian Government; 2. Air Transport Contracts and the Italian Provisions; 2.1. The voucher as a means of reimbursement; 3. EU Commission Guidelines; 3.1. The amendment contained in paragraph 4, Art. 88bis: Possible infringement of Regulation No. 261/2004. 1. OVERVIEW OF THE MEASURES TO MINIMISE THE SPREAD OF THE CONTAGION ADOPTED BY THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT The spread of COVID-19 virus in the Western world and Italy, in particular, having been the first European Country to be hit by the incredibly rapid spread of this virus, led the Italian Government to adopt an extensive series of Legislative Decrees as to implement some measures in order to both minimise the risk of infection and economically cope with the consequences of confinement and containment measures adopted. To better understand the provisions and the issues related to air transport contracts, it is important to briefly describe the main measures taken by the Italian legislator during the past few months. At the end of January, the World Health Organization (WHO) realised that COVID-19 was to be treated as a global threat and thus declared the state of emergency at an international level. Following such declaration, on 31 January, the Italian Council of Ministers also declared the national state of emergency on the Italian territory for a period of 6 months, and several provisions followed therefrom, in order to lessen the risk of contagion. On 23 February 2020, by virtue of Decree-Law No. 6, urgent measures for the containment of the epidemiological emergency from COVID-19 were 1 University of Milano-Bicocca.
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