Luisa Via Roma died and re-formed as LVR — the price of the e-commerce boom

Luisa Via Roma, the Florence boutique that became one of Europe's first multibrand luxury e-commerce players, hit the post-pandemic reversal of online luxury head-on. By September 2025 the company was in open crisis: solidarity contracts — the Italian instrument for spreading reduced hours across a workforce — were proposed for all 259 employees, and the Milan office, with 22 staff, faced closure.

The legal path chosen was the concordato semplificato liquidatorio, a simplified liquidation-style insolvency procedure under which the old company is wound up while what still works is preserved. Through the procedure the company guaranteed salaries and opened the door to new investors, while Tuscany's regional crisis table — coordinated by Valerio Fabiani, adviser to President Eugenio Giani on corporate crises — convened the talks after unions challenged unilateral company decisions.

The resolution came on 26 June 2026 at the regional safeguarding table: a collective agreement transferring all employees from Luisa Via Roma S.p.A. to a new industrial entity, LVR S.r.l. Workers approved the deal in an assembly vote, 157 in favour, 15 against, 3 abstentions out of 181 eligible; individual agreements follow on an agreed schedule.

The shape of the case is the shape of multibrand luxury e-commerce itself. The model boomed when lockdowns pushed purchases online, and collapsed when demand normalised and the brands moved product into their own direct channels. The pioneer of the model survived only by changing legal bodies: the old company keeps the debts in the concordato, and the new company keeps the jobs.