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Sale of Goods Act - Italian Equivalent?

is there an Italian (or general European) equivalent to the UK's Sale of Goods Act 1979? I bought a very expensive hp laptop in March 2007, in three and a half years, it has been repaired twice for the same problem, and now failed again. It is a known problem that HP have admitted. The first time it was repaired at less than 12 moths old was in Italy. About a year later it failed again and the Italian HP customer services didn't want to know. No point taking it back to the shop because they are notorious for passing the buck to the manufacturers. I eventually got it repaired for free in England, where I'm from, but 15 months later it has failed again. It cost a lot of money. At this stage, I don't want it repaired again, when I know, and HP knows, the motherboard is faulty, and will more than likely fail again. I just want a replacement. If i'd bought it in England I think I'd stand a better chance because I could go to the small claims court, but whoever I ask here, nobody knows a thing about consumer rights!!! Any help out there please? Should have stated that it was not imported - I bought it in Italy, I live in Italy. I took it to HP in England to be repaired by HP as I didn't get anywhere with the Italian branch of HP. HP repaired it for free and extended the warranty for another year. It failed again after just a few weeks of the expiration. If I was in England, I'd take the case to court if they refused to replace it as it is certainly not fit for purpose and not of merchantable quality. My question asks if there is an Italian equivalent to the UK Sale OF Goods Act 1979.

Public Comments

1. Having accepted repairs, I am not sure that even under U.K. law that you would have much of a chance in court. Besides, any repair would probably now exceed the value of the machine itself. Italy is not famed for either quality control or consumer rights. With it being imported goods as well, all the cards are stacked against you. My advice would be to either to get a cheap backstreet repair or right it off an buy a new machine. In future a recommend that you don't accept a repair on any faulty electronic equipment, but instead ask for a replacement. It is often something other than the part of the machine that fails that is the source of the problem and engineers only ever replace the part that fails.
2. Since I don't know what UK Sale of Goods Act actually states, I can suggest you (I assume you can speak Italian) to ask to some consumer's associations; ADUC SoS online always gave me fast and competent answers http://sosonline.aduc.it/ but you can also try this forum http://www.classactionitalia.net/forum.php Basically, you should have right to get a faultless new item http://www.helpconsumatori.it/news.php?id=11204 but I fear now may be just too late. Anyway remember by EU law the vendor is responsible, they have to deal with the manufacturer or the distributor, not you.