Italy’s Exercise of Foreign Investment Screening Power against Chinese Takeover

Abstract

In March 2021, Italy vetoed the acquisition of an Italian company operating in the field of semiconductors by a Chinese group. It did so by using its so-called golden power, meaning the power to interfere with the management of companies to protect strategic economic sectors, introduced in 2012 and substantially revised in 2019 and 2020. The present comment offers an evaluation of the compatibility of Italy’s inward investment screening powers with international law norms on the promotion and protection of foreign investments by trying to outline the limits posed by the latter on domestic foreign investment screening mechanisms.