There is no justification for the provision with which the Ministry of Transport in March 2018 requested Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (now Stellantis) to launch a recall campaign for cars in the Euro 6 diesel range to make them "fully compatible" with European legislation.
This was decided by the Lazio Regional Administrative Court with a ruling in which it upheld an appeal brought by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Italy Spa and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. A complex affair based on the issue of the ban on the use of manipulation systems on motor vehicles which reduce the effectiveness of control systems of emissions.
Following the so-called Dieselgate, the European Commission invited Member States to carry out investigations into vehicles in circulation.
The Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, the competent authority for vehicles approved in Germany, tested, among others, the "Fiat 500
The European Commission initiated proceedings, which concluded without any action requested from FCA.
In May 2017, however, an infringement procedure arrived against Italy;
just when FCA announced that it had completed the development of new and more updated versions of its Euro 6 diesel calibrations. Following the infringement procedure, the Ministry nevertheless issued the provision, which was then contested before the TAR.
The judges today accepted the complaint of lack of preliminary investigation and motivation, as well as the contradictory and generic nature of the prescriptive content of the provision.
"From reading the provision - writes the TAR - it is not possible to deduce with sufficient certainty what the specific profile of non-compliance alleged against the appellant is";
and "nor does the reference to infringement procedure no.
2017/2044 help in this regard, the exact terms of which remained unknown during the proceedings, as the relevant documents had not been produced".
The ministerial provision was therefore annulled, with a request to the Administration in the event of its re-edition, "to specify, where existing, the specific non-compliance profile complained of to the appellant, the terms of the necessary compliance with the relevant legislation as well as (where still necessary) the concretely indispensable measures to ensure that the vehicles being checked correspond to the approval granted at the time".
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