Transmission of rights and contractual positions, including employment contracts, associated with concession contracts

Abstract

The paper approaches a central topic in the functioning of concession contracts: the issue of the transmission of rights and contracts associated with the concession, which normally takes place at the end of its term, but might also occur, in specific situations, in intermediate moments (as with the temporary assumption of the concession by a third party and subsequent return to the sphere of the concessionaire). The decision on which rights are transmitted, or not, protects the continuity of the concession (and the so-called “concession assets”), the autonomy in managing and exploring that asset, the protection of competition (namely, when the concession is tendered for a new term), and also other interests (such as security of employment, in the case of the transmission of employment contracts). Some of the problems which arise in this context are the object of legal solutions, sometimes not totally clear, and in other cases we might even question the solutions provided by the law.