The K-Zone: Francovitch and Bonifaci v Italy (1991)

C-6/90, C-9/90. Italy failed to implement into its national law an EC Directive for the protection of employees in the event of the employer's insolvency. The issue for the ECJ was whether this failure to act, in itself, created a cause of action in the domestic courts. It was already established that an unimplemented Directive could have VerticalDirectEffect, that is, be invoked in a dispute between an individual and the state (e.g., VanDuyn1974). However, this case goes a step further, because the ECJ held that, not only could a directive be invoked in the courts, it could found a cause of action against the state. In fact, the decision is potentially wider than this, as it describes any breach of EC law by the state as creating a cause of action, although only non-implementation is discussed in detail.

The ECJ stated three conditions that had to be satsified for there to be a cause of action for non-implementation.