Battle over Italy's beaches
by editors@theworld.org (Sarah Birnbaum) from The World: Latest Stories on (#6PZNQ)
In Italy, even though the beaches are public property, the government rents out stretches of beach to beach club operators. And those licenses are handed down from father to son for generations, creating monopolies. The EU has decided to get involved. It says that this practice violates a competition clause. And now, it is forcing the beach club licenses to be reallocated through a fair bidding process. The operators are not happy, as The World's Sarah Birnbaum reports.