THE AEFI ADMINISTRATIVE-LEGAL COMMITTEE MEETS IN VICENZA TO DISCUSS PUBLICLY CONTROLLED COMPANIES AND THE PROCESS OF ADAPTATION TO THE NEW PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATIONS

The AEFI Administrative-Legal Committee, coordinated by Giovanni Barbato, met on 20 March at the Vicenza site of IEG –Italian Exhibition Group to examine the possible implications for trade fair organisations in relation to the definition of public control of subsidiaries and discuss the process of adapting to the new privacy rules with the new European GDPR coming into force.

The Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance has prepared Guidance which effectively appears to alter the condition of public control in relation to subsidiaries. For this reason, the Committee has reassessed, with the advice of the eminent expert Professors and Lawyers Giuseppe Caia and Nicola Aicardi, the opinions already given at the end of 2016 in light of the recent documents. The new opinion confirms that joint subsidiaries are publicly controlled only when the public sector shareholders share control since they are bound to take strategic management and financial decisions regarding the company’s activity unanimously. According to this interpretation, “non-publicly-controlled” trade fairs are excluded from the category of subjects that perform “public functions or activity of public interest” and the senior management of the trade fairs from the category of subjects who qualify as responsible for public service.

With respect to the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) which has profoundly reformed the existing rules, AEFI has acted in time and decided to make use of the opportunity offered by the regulations to draw up a Code of Conduct for Trade Fair Organisations. AEFI has therefore established a select Working Group including certain member Trade Fair Organisations representative – in terms of size and territorial distribution – of the member body, which with the support of the specialist company P4I is analysing the most critical issues arising from the application of the GDPR in the operative context of Trade Fair Organisations and will soon present some operative guidelines useful for all Members in simplifying the process of company adaptation. The actual Code of Conduct will subsequently by developed with the support of the Authority. Once approved by the Authority, it can then be adopted by the members.

AEFI – Associazione Esposizioni e Fiere Italiane, a private non-profit Association, was established in 1983 with the goal of generating synergies between the most important Italian exhibition districts. AEFI would like to be seen as a privileged partner for operators and institutions alike, and its role is to support members through the development of activities and programmes in the sphere of training, marketing, promotion and research, as well as to provide services for trade fairs through the activities of its Committees: Exhibition Hub Technical Committee, Legal-Administrative Committee, Internationalisation Committee and Trade Fairs Network Committee.
On the internationalization front, AEFI supports members thanks to agreements with strategic markets. To date, partnerships have been agreed with associations representing the concerns in the trade fair sector in Iran, Taiwan (TECA), Lebanon (LECA), India (IEIA), Thailand (TEA), Africa (AAXO), countries in Central Europe (CENTREX) and with AmCham, the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy. A memorandum of understanding has been signed with SACE and SIMEST.
AEFI has promoted the foundation of ISFCert, the Certification Institute for Exhibition Industry Statistics which, through rigorous methodologies, enables Italian organisers to present and recognise standardised data, in the name of transparency and reliability.
AEFI represents Italian trade fairs in UFI – Union of International Fairs. Chaired by Ettore Riello, AEFI includes 35 member exhibition districts, which organise over 1,000 events a year over an overall exhibition area of 4.2 million square metres. Nearly all international and national trade fairs which take place each year in Italy are held in AEFI-member exhibition districts.