Introduzione

Network contracts are becoming very common in the Italian productive system, which is largely made up of small and medium enterprises (SME). These contracts enable parties to collaborate in projects, which would have been unfeasible without cooperation, thereby avoiding to lose their ownership. The Italian «technical» government has considered this type of contract as an important tool for getting through the economic recession. For this reason the lawmaker has introduced some modifications, which have improved the discipline. The most important one is limited liability, which is connected to the relationship between networks and banks; limited liability allows the network to obtain bank loans profiting by «Network¿s rating». Other changes may further need to be introduced. From this perspective, an European legislative intervention for turning business network from a national into an European legal tool will be considered very appropriate.