Covid-19 emergency and contracts

The ongoing Covid-19 emergency and the adoption of measures for its containment face companies with serious problems in the management of their contractual relationships, affecting the ability of the parties to perform or receive the related obligations. Small and large companies are met with many difficulties with reference, for example, to their supplies, delivery times and, more generally, the concrete possibility of fulfilling their contractual obligations.

It is therefore necessary to understand, on a case by case basis, as well as with regard to rules such as those relating to "supervening impossibility" and "excessive onerousness", in which cases such particular events may make it legally impossible to fulfill some obligations. This analysis constitutes an essential starting point for many fundamental strategic choices that companies may have to make, i.e. whether to renegotiate pending contracts in order to avoid possible litigation.

Prof. Ruffolo discusses these issues in an editorial on Il Resto del Carlino of March 25, 2020, of which we publish a copy.