The contract is your first line of defence. (And hardly anyone has drafted it properly.)

Three things we learned from the WIM Insights webinar on legal risks in events with attorney Niccolò Zingoni. (There are many more.)

In our industry, a reassuring idea circulates: a contract is a formality, the relationship with the client is built on trust, and if something goes wrong, "we'll work it out." It is a cherished, very Italian idea, and it often works. Until the day it doesn't.

On September 29, for the penultimate technical session of the 2026 WIM Insights series, we hosted attorney Niccolò Zingoni, lawyer at the Milan Bar and professor of private international law at Università Cattolica. Together, we built a map of the legal risks that fall not on the client, but on those who actually bring events to life: venues and hotels, service providers, planners, and organizers.

The first insight came from the chat. When asked who had a clause in their contract regarding unforeseen excessive onerousness, only a single participant answered yes. From there, the webinar debunked more than one widespread belief. Here are three of them.

First insight: criminal liability cannot be insured

It is not uncommon to meet operators convinced they hold a policy that also protects them on a criminal level. In Italy, this is impossible: any agreement of this kind is null and void. Insurance covers civil liability, while criminal risk—for instance, regarding venue capacity and safety—remains entirely with those in charge. For private venues, where regulations leave vast grey areas, the wisest approach is to voluntarily adopt the standards required for spaces open to the public.

Second insight: the dropped cake costs more than the cake itself

Under Italian law, even when a contract includes a penalty clause, greater damages remain recoverable. If the wedding cake falls, the client can demand accountability not just for its monetary value, but for the loss of the cake-cutting moment on their wedding day. Every operator has their own "cake": the fresco chosen as the backdrop for photos, the song for the first dance, the photographer's files. Knowing what yours are and safeguarding them is risk management.

Third insight: being right isn't enough, you must be able to prove it

In Italian civil proceedings, cases are won on documents. When an incident occurs during an event, photographs, videos, witness accounts, and notes gathered on the spot are often what allow the dispute to be resolved quickly. On-site operational staff don't need to know the civil code. They need to know what to do in the first ten minutes.

Everything else

In the webinar, we also discussed: why a void contract is far more dangerous than a voidable one; why an unpaid subcontractor, with few exceptions, cannot seek recourse against you; what COVID taught us about force majeure clauses; why an off-the-books fifty-euro babysitter can put an entire team in jeopardy; when a commission is an obligation and when it is a courtesy; why an NDA signed by everyone is not enough to guarantee confidentiality; and why a contract with a foreign client can be written solely in English, under one precise condition.

The full in-depth article, the ten operational steps, and the webinar slides are available on WIMforPRO in the Insights Plus section, reserved for Silver and Gold network members.

The series continues on October 6 with a webinar dedicated to event taxation, on October 13 with the Russian-speaking market featuring Victoria Kursova, and at the end of October with a webinar on insurance alongside Generali. And from November 18 to 20, we will gather in Florence for the WIM Event 2026. The full program is at wimforevents.com.

Now we know the risks. It's up to us to write them into our contracts.

The contents of this article are for informational and educational purposes only and reflect what emerged during the webinar. They do not constitute legal advice and do not replace professional counsel on individual concrete cases.