Consiglio di Stato, Sezione III, April 8 2020, n. 1841

With the recent Decree, Section III of the Council of State has rejected the cautionary appeal proposed by Codacons consumer association following the unsuccessful request for precautionary monocratic protection. Codacons had complained for the National Civil Protection’s refusal to communicate, in the reports issued daily, the information acquired from the Regions on a variety of statistical and health data relating to the evolution of the emergency situation produced by the Covid-19 epidemic.
The precautionary petition filed by Codacons as an entity representing the interests of consumers was aimed at obtaining the communication of information and data missing in the reports made public by the Civil Protection on March 25 and 26, 2020.
Confirming the precautionary decision of the Judge of first instance, the presidential Council of State’s order established that there is neither a formal refusal to publish the additional data received from the Regions, nor the Civil Protection has adopted an act of measure, since the collection and dissemination of regional data in order to ensure timely information to citizens does not represent the exercise of any public power.
The Council of State admits that the disclosure of the additional data requested in the precautionary appeal would certainly be useful to draw a clearer and more precise picture. However, the possibility of such data being collected and subsequently published is the subject of a declaratory action and not an action for annulment, such as the one proposed, since there is no measure to be annulled.