Contratto di logistica

This paper examines the logistics contract that is to say a contract where a logistics operator regulates for the customer the flows of goods from the place of materials’ purchase to the place of distribution of final products. The services performed by the logistics operator generally are: transportation, warehousing, cargo handling, inventory management, etc. No one service prevails over another. So a logistics contract is a mixed contract involving numerous activities of an extremely diverse nature which are no longer considered as stages of the supply chains but as the constituent parts of a complete interrelated logistics activity. There is no legal source for this contract and it is for this reason that it is necessary to define the legal nature of the contract and to identify the law applicable in order to regulate the logistics provider’s liability and other issues not covered in the contract. In particular this paper illustrates the origin of logistics contracts, the contract parts (logistics operator and customer), the logistics activities, the issue relating the law applicable to this contract, the theses of the doctrine, the absence of case law, the attempt to elaborate standard forms and the inopportunity of a legal regulation because of the presence of many contracts of different content.