Mayors across Italy are fearing a deluge of legal complaints after the country’s top court ruled that noisy nightlife could be harmful to people’s health.
In the first ruling of its kind in Italy, the supreme court of cassation ordered Brescia city council to pay €50,000 (£43,000) in compensation to a couple for failing to safeguard them against noise, reported Il Messaggero.
The decision concludes a 10-year legal case in which the couple, who live in Carmine, a district of the northern Italian city popular for its bustling nightlife, pursued a right to “a quiet life” and “rest”.
They claimed they had endured countless sleepless nights owing to the incessant chatter of often drunk people on the streets near their home.
The supreme court of cassation recognised the couple’s plight, agreeing with the ruling of a lower court that said “shouting” emanating from the bars and restaurants had been harmful to the couple’s health. The court said the noise was too invasive and had infringed on the their right to peace and quiet.
Mayors of other Italian towns and cities are worried that they too may have to pay out thousands in compensation to residents living in areas where nightlife has become increasingly boisterous, particularly since the Covid pandemic.
The cassation court is also to deliberate a case brought by 29 residents in the San Salvario area of Turin. If it rules in the group’s favour, the city council may have to comply with an early ruling and payout €1.2m in compensation.
Elsewhere, groups of residents have either launched or are threatening to launch legal action against noisy nightlife, including in Bari, where 140 people filed a complaint to the city’s public prosecutor last summer after becoming “exasperated by the continuous disturbances” in the Umbertino area, according to Il Messaggero.
While there has not yet been an outcome of legal action in Bari, Antonio Decaro, the city’s mayor and president of ANCI, the national confederation of local authorities, said the situation was “very delicate”. Michele De Pascale, the mayor of Ravenna, said laws needed to be implemented to ensure rules surrounding nightlife were respected, otherwise “the economic damage for local authorities could be enormous”.
Alessio D’Amato, a councillor in Lazio, the region surrounding Rome, said authorities would need to equip themselves “to avoid being overwhelmed by requests for compensation”. Miguel Gotor, councillor for culture in Rome, said the court ruling seemed “excessive”, as it was “difficult to identify the direct responsibility for the bad effects of nightlife to a public administration”.
