PROTESTS

Law No. 235/2000 and Ministerial Decree No. 316/2000 gave the Chambers of Commerce the authority to officially publish a list of protested promissory notes, accepted bills of exchange and cheques in the National Computerized Register of Protests, as well as the competence to give judgement on the petitions for cancellation of protests.

THE COMPUTERIZED REGISTER OF PROTESTS

It is a computerized database which allows online access to the lists of people on whom a protest (for bills or cheques) has been served during the last five years. The Register can be consulted at the Chamber counters, or via its website. Researches can be made on a national scale too, obtaining the respective business profile information.

Debtors protested can submit an application to the Chamber in order to obtain cancellation of their name from the Register before five years elapse, in the following cases provided for law:

1. when the bill has been payed within a year after the date of protest;
2. when the debtor proves to have a bill protested illegally or wrongly;
3. when the debtor has been restored by the competent court. (Debtors can also apply for restoration after paying the bill or cheque, provided that at least one year elapsed since the date of protest and that no other protests were filed during the last year).

Restoration is necessary to be able to apply for cancellation of:

• bank or giro cheques
• bills payed over a year after the date of protest.

After the cancellation, the protest is considered in every respect as it was never served (according to Law No.77/1955, Article 4, Section 3).

If cancellation is not available yet, the debtor protested can apply for integration with the entry of the payment receipt of the bill or cheque.

BUSINESS PROFILE INFORMATION SERVICE

This service provides information about credit instruments (bills or cheques) for which a protest has been served to a given company or person during the last five years. Inexistence of a protest can be certified too.

Business profile information is issued immediately at:

• the head office of the Chamber of Commerce, Via A.Vochieri 58, Alessandria
• the branch office of the Chamber of Commerce in Casale Monferrato, corso Roma 197.

The Computerized Register of Protests can also be consulted on the web, upon subscription of a special agreement, by:

• TelemacoPay Service, managed by Infocamere;
• Official data providers of Infocamere, available at this website:

       http://www.infocamere.it/distributori.htm