Sanctions 2026

ITALY Trends and Developments Contributed by: Francesco Isolabella, Luigi Isolabella and Enrico Maria Canzi, Studio Isolabella

b) Transposition of the Directive in Italy In Italy, the Directive was transposed by Legislative Decree No. 211 of 30 December 2025, which entered into force on 24 January 2026. That decree introduced a new Chapter I-bis into Book II, Title I, of the Italian Criminal Code, entitled “Offences against the foreign policy and common security of the European Union”, which includes: • New criminal offences and administrative penalties protecting European Union restrictive measures, set out in Articles 275-bis to 275-decies. • New predicate offences for the liability of legal persons under Legislative Decree No. 231/2001, introduced by Article 25-octies.2, entitled “Offenc - es relating to the violation of European Union restrictive measures”. Their repression is governed by a new and particularly stringent criterion, which departs from the traditional quota-based system used to date and instead refers – where it can be determined – to percentages of the undertaking’s worldwide turnover. Regarding the new criminal offences and administra - tive penalties, Article 275-bis of the Italian Criminal Code targets anyone who intentionally violates or circumvents European Union restrictive measures by engaging in one of the following forms of conduct: • making funds or economic resources available to persons or entities included in sanctions lists, or otherwise providing funds or economic resources to listed persons; • failing to freeze assets; and • importing, exporting, selling, purchasing, transfer - ring or transiting prohibited goods (including tech - nological, military or dual-use goods) or prohibited services including services of any nature, financial services, or the execution of financial transactions. The offence also covers circumvention, carried out through acts intended to evade sanctions by means of sham interpositions, false declarations or conceal - ment of the beneficial owner. Concerning sanctions, the legislator has provided for the coexistence of both criminal and administrative penalties.

Violations of European Union Restrictive Measures in the Italian Legal System: from Directive (EU) 2024/1226 to Legislative Decree No. 211/2025 a) Directive (EU) 2024/1226 Through Legislative Decree No. 211 of 30 December 2025, which entered into force on 24 January 2026, the Italian legal system transposed Directive (EU) 2024/1226. The Directive required member states to “establish minimum rules concerning the definition of criminal offences and penalties for the violation of Union restrictive measures” in order “to ensure the effective application of Union restrictive measures, the integrity of the internal market within the Union and a high level of security in the area of freedom, security and justice” (see the first recital of the Directive). The stated objective of the Directive is to ensure uni - form application and rigorous enforcement of restric - tive measures adopted within the framework of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), with a view to preserving the stability of the European Union, promoting respect for international law and strengthening the European Union’s ability to respond to threats and violations that may undermine interna- tional peace and security. In particular, from a subjective standpoint, the Direc - tive expressly provides that, in addition to natural per - sons, legal persons must also be capable of being held liable for offences “where such offences have been committed for their benefit by any person who has a leading position within the legal person con - cerned” (Article 6 of the Directive). It also provides for a set of significant sanctions, calibrated – as regards financial penalties – by reference to the total world - wide turnover of the legal person, in an amount of not less than 1% or 5%, depending on the seriousness of the offence (see Article 7 of the Directive). The European legislature has therefore entrusted member states with a clear mandate: to sanction, in an effective and harmonised manner, all conducts amounting to a violation or circumvention of restric - tive measures imposed by the European Union, while ensuring that the level of sanctions is sufficiently dis - suasive, including for larger undertakings.

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