It’s an organisation of representation and protection of cooperatives, with headquarters in Rome.

It was created under the name of Federation of Italian cooperative Societies after the first convention of cooperative members in 1886 and it took the name of League of Cooperatives in 1893 with the intent of collecting together every type of cooperative. In 1919 there was a first division: the Confederation of Italian Cooperatives was founded, bringing together the cooperative world of Catholic inspiration (one of the big fields of Italian cooperativism). The League remained instead linked to a socialist and left-wing world.

During the Republican period there was still division between Legacoop, Confcoop and general Association of Italian cooperatives - AGCI, politically orientated: since 2011 however they are part of a unique Coordination, the Alliance of Italian Cooperatives. The central cooperative of Legacoop gathers still today about 15,000 cooperatives of every sector within the whole Italian territory.