Ursula Von der Leyen expressed her interest in the problems of the sector in Italy, where everything has been at a standstill at a legislative level since 2017, while the sector exceeds 20 thousand openings in Italy, and only 1000 activities are in order according to existing laws
Rome, December 1st, 2023 – In Italy an incomprehensible and embarrassing regulatory vacuum is penalizing the Home Restaurant sector, which currently has over 20 thousand active home restaurants.
“A Home Restaurant is a restaurant organized and managed by a private individual in his own home, but Italian legislation is currently limited, stopped until 2017, and leaves only 1,000 businesses out of 20,000 in compliance.“
This was stated by Gaetano Campolo, CEO of Home restaurant Hotel, a sector portal with over 1000 regular Home Restaurants registered on the platform.
“The Home Restaurants registered on our portal offer a unique social eating experience, despite the regulatory void“, says the CEO of Home Restaurant Hotel, present in over 300 Italian cities.
Although everything has stopped in 2017 after the infamous Home Restaurant DDL, fortunately rejected by the Antitrust, the Home Restaurant sector survives the absence of law, thanks to Article 41 of the Italian Constitution which protects private economic initiative even in the absence of law , provided it is controlled by an authority. In this case for the Home Restaurant sector the controller is the State Police, as determined by the opinion of the Ministry of the Interior of February 2019 on Security and Surveillance.
The limit for those who carry out a home restaurant business must be occasional, with a maximum of 3 openings per week and the issuing of non-fiscal receipts up to a maximum of 5,000 euros net per year.
“So Home Restaurants in Italy are allowed but limited, which is why we have been asking the legislator for years to deal with the sector by responding to the European Agendas, but at the moment there is silence and regional DDLs such as in Campania and Friuli Venezia Giulia are unconstitutional as the The Home Restaurant sector is dealt with in the trade market, while it is instead part of the Competition Market and therefore in the hands of the State“, Gaetano Campolo explains further.
Despite this and other absurd misinformation, such as requesting the Scia (Certified Report of commencement of activity), without a law or an Ateco code, in Campania for example there are almost 100 Home Restaurants online.
“Data communicated transparently at the Police Headquarters – says the creator of the platform – making them visible as required by the 2017 Antitrust Bulletin, unlike other websites such as Airbnb which are trying to enter our sector. Home Restaurant Hotel srl for its part wrote and received a response on August 10th, 2023 from the European Commission in the figure of Ursula von der Leyen, who appointed Clara Ducimetriere to start an investigation in this regard and making us involved in any developments“.
“We have also promoted a petition on Change.org, which has almost reached 1000 signatures, with which we ask for a law for the Home Restaurant sector, and we trust that Senator Cataldi is among the few who have recently taken an interest in the development and regulation of the sector“, concludes Gaetano Campolo.
For those wishing to start a Home Restaurant in full legality, just follow the instructions suggested on the www.homerestauranthotel.com portal: just fill out the appropriate form in the contact section and you will be contacted free of charge by the team responsible for the portal.