New Consumer Code: new provisions on consumer goods’ guarantees as of January 1st, 2022

As of 1 ^st January 2022, the new provisions on the legal guarantee of conformity and commercial guarantees for consumer goods come into force..

Italian Legislative Decree no. 170/2021, implementing EU Directive 2019/771, fully replaces Chapter I of Title III of Part IV of the Italian Consumer Code (Legislative Decree no. 206/2005), thereby reforming the rules on the conformity of goods, remedies in the event of lack of conformity, the procedures for exercising such remedies and conventional guarantees..

The new Articles 128 - 135 septies of the Italian Consumer Code will apply to sales contracts, both online and offline, concluded after January 1^st , 2022,  between a consumer and a seller (B2C) relating to tangible movable goods.

Contracts for the supply of digital content or services are also included in the scope of the new provisions, in case that they are incorporated into or interconnected with the goods and sold together with the good. This, regardless of whether the said digital content or services are provided by the seller or by a third party.

Some of the main changes are listed as follows.

1. The legal guarantee of conformity is strengthened:

• analytical objective and subjective requirements for assessing the conformity of goods are introduced: in order for a product to be considered in conformity with the contract of sale, both categories of requirements must be fulfilled;
• if the goods sold are non-compliant with the objective requirements, the seller will be required to prove that he "specifically informed" the consumer of such deviation, whereas it will no longer be sufficient to argue that the consumer could have known of such deviation by exercising ordinary diligence.

1. The seller's liability and warranty regime for consumer goods becomes more burdensome:

• special provisions are introduced in relation to digital goods, including the seller's obligation to provide periodic free updates, including on security;
• the two-month mandatory time limit for the consumer to report lack of conformity is eliminated;
• the lack of conformity presumption in order to which the lack of conformity existed since the delivery of the good, is extended to one year  (instead of  six months provided forunder the current rules).

1. The duties arising from a commercial guarantee become more burdensome. In particular, if the terms set out in the commercial guarantee are less advantageous to the consumer than the terms set out in the advertising, the commercial guarantee binds the seller according to the terms set out in the advertising, unless the advertising has been corrected prior to the conclusion of the contract, in the same or, at least, a similar manner as that in which it was made.