Sommario: 

1. Premessa. 

2. Cenni sul metodo tariffario del servizio idrico integrato. 

3. Effetti del referendum abrogativo sulla tariffa fissata con il metodo normalizzato. 

4. Considerazioni conclusive. 

4.1. Remunerazione del capitale e costo della risorsa finanziaria. 

4.2. Effetto abrogativo limitato alla sola «adeguatezza» della remunerazione. 

4.3. Sul concetto di «rilevanza economica». 

4.4. Rischio d’impresa e rendita monopolistica.

Abstract: 

The referendum on water services held in 2011 – that repealed the regulations concerning the adequacy of the return on invested capital in water service – may have been done in vain. Despite the vote in favour of repeal expressed by twenty-six millions of Italians, the primary objective set forth by the committee for the referendum has not been achieved. According to the Italian Constitutional Court, such objective was to «make the governance and management of water alien to a profit-driven logic». The temporary method for determining the tariffs of the integrated water service, which is currently entrusted to the Regulatory Authority for Electricity and Gas (Autorità garante per l’energia elettrica e il gas), provides that in accordance with the principle of full cost recovery, the costs to be charged in the water bill shall include also the financial costs borne by the service operators.