Leroy Merlin in Marcianise, 100 million in damages requested from the Municipality for the failure to open – Corriere.it

Leroy Merlin is preparing a claim for damages of 100 million euros against the Municipality of Marcianise. The story has been going on since 2018, when the French group plans a 21 million investment to open a fourth megastore in Campania and buys a property within the interport of the municipality of Casertano. A year later, when the works were almost completed, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Santa Maria Capua Vetere contested the building permit due to alleged irregularities in the authorization procedure that took place before the purchase of Leroy Merlin, which, as the Only 24 Hours reconstructing the story, extraneous to the contested events. The fact is that the property is seized. To solve the problem, the company Leroy Merlin presented the application for the reissue of the building permit to the prefectural commissioner, but received no response.

The Municipal Commissioner

With the inauguration of the new mayor, Leroy Merlin requests a response from the Municipality which rejects the request. At this point the group decides to appeal to the Tar, in the meantime almost three years have passed since the purchase of the property. The Campania Regional Administrative Court accepts the appeal, acknowledging Leroy Merlin’s right to issue an urban planning and commercial license for the opening of a medium-sized sales structure store. Given that the Municipality, despite the judges’ pronouncement, does not issue the license, the company presents a second appeal to the Tar to request compliance with the sentence, also, possibly, with the appointment of an ad acta commissioner, reserving the right to take any action aimed at obtaining compensation for damages. The Tar accepts the appeal and orders the Municipality to implement the sentence or appoint a commissioner within 30 days. Nothing has been done since then, explained the French group, for this reason the group has decided to ask the Municipality for damages. Which, however, is now a police station (since October 2022). The store, says Leroy Merlin, would employ 140 people, 200 with related industries. But for now it cannot be opened.