The Italian Council of State confirmed that the automatic extension of service concessions for the distribution of natural under Legislative Decree 1
By a recent judgment, case no. 5984/2010, Enel Rete Gas Spa v Comune di Uboldo , consistently with its case law, the Council of State confirmed that under the transitory period in Legislative Decree 164/2000 the service concessions for the distribution of natural gas automatically extended. Legislative Decree 164/2000, which implement into Italian legal system the Gas Directive 2003/55/EC provided for a five-year transitional period starting from 31 December 2004. This period was aimed at enabling the parties to service concessions in force on the date of the enactment of Legislative Decree 164/2000 to comply with the new regime. The transitional period applied to service concessions for distribution of natural gas awarded before the Decree. This period automatically extended if the concession-holder met certain dimensional thresholds before 31 December 2004. In the Rete Gas Spa v Comune di Uboldo case, the appealed, Municipality of Uboldo (the Municipality), had awarded the appellant