Italian law puts brakes on name

• Published date: 20 April 2024
• Author: Motoring Staff
• Publication title: Saturday Star

But now, the Italian government has put a spoke in its wheel by stating that using the Milano name would be illegal as the new model was built in Poland

In a statement this week, Alfa Romeo said that although it believed the name met all legal requirements, it had decided to change the name from Milano to Junior in the spirit of “promoting mutual understanding” and because there were “issues much more important than the name of a new car”.

This came after Italy’s Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said: “A car called Milano cannot be produced in Poland. This is against the law.”

Urso said the law stipulated a product’s name should not be misleading.

“A car called Milano must be produced in Italy. Otherwise, it gives a misleading indication which is not allowed under Italian law," he added.

This is not the first time Alfa Romeo has been forced to backtrack after giving the Milano name to a car.

For some context, Milan is the birthplace of Alfa Romeo, but the company closed its plant there in 2000, and a decade later, it was moving its last employees to the Turin headquarters. The Giulietta hatchback that was launched in 2010 was meant to use the Milano name but given the aforementioned situation, the brand bowed to political pressure and...