“Multinationality with variable geometry” and the EU legal order

Abstract

This paper highlights that the approach to the “notion” of “multinationality” of the EU legal order is different from that adopted by the international legal order, where that notion is substantially irrelevant. For the EU legal system, it is often appropriate to define a multinational company and this system does not adopt only one definition, thus giving rise to a “variable geometry multinationality”. In this regard, the EU provisions on collective redundancies and on European works councils are very eloquent although the EU adopts a different approach in the two cases. Another notion of multinationality at the EU level is that concerning companies operating on a digital platform where it is possible to speak of a "double multinationality", the first deriving from the presence of several undertakings of a group operating according to corporate logic, and the second arising from the presence of the digital platform. The final part of the paper deals with the notion of multinationality in the Italian legal order as regards to some quite recent national provisions concerning relocation outside the European Union.

Keywords

• multinationality
• formal corporate control
• substantial corporate control
• digital platform
• relocation
• workers’ protection