ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Giorgio Vagnoni, Alessio Di Pietro, Alessandra Mosca and Cesare Placanica, LAWP Studio legale e tributario
Case law is now consolidated in the belief that the choices of courts and legislators – if oriented in favour of the protection of confidentiality of certain data held by banks and financial institutions – cannot constitute an obstacle to ascertaining the correct payment of taxes and to the enforcement of other primary require - ments, such as those connected to the administration of justice and the persecution of crimes. Thus, banking details may be disclosed for several reasons – ie, in order to verify income and the conse - quent correct payment of taxes or to investigate the possible commission of offences. Even in civil enforce - ment procedures (see 2.1 Disclosure of Defendants’ Assets ), the claimant may obtain disclosure of infor - mation regarding any financial relationship between Crypto-assets are not official legal tender. Neverthe - less, they may be used as a method of payment for purchasing goods and services if the seller accepts them. Both Italian and EU legislators are trying to fill the reg - ulatory gap by defining crypto-assets and imposing relevant limits. By way of example, in 2017 the Italian Ministry of Economics and Finance (MEF) included service providers related to virtual currency among the recipients of AML obligations, while in 2022 the Cryptocurrency Registry was established – through which, transaction data must be transmitted quarterly to the MEF. Additionally, in 2018 the European Parlia - ment formally recognised crypto-assets and imposed mandatory checks on customers by digital wallet ser - vice providers in order to end anonymity (Directive 2018/843). the debtor and banks. 7.3 Crypto-Assets
Legislative Decree No 129/2024, which transposes into Italian law Regulation 1114/2023 on crypto- assets markets, has assigned supervisory authorities, such as Consob and the Banca d’Italia, the respon - sibility to oversee and regulate operations related to crypto-assets. It has also introduced transparency and fairness obligations for operators, with the aim of protecting investors and ensuring market stability. Furthermore, administrative sanctions are foreseen for those who fail to comply with the regulations, in order to strengthen investor security and the stability of the crypto-assets market. Prevailing jurisprudence admits: • probationary seizure, performed by digitally extracting evidence of relevant transactions; and • preventative seizure, performed either by seiz - ing the agent’s hardware or files, or the informatic data held by service providers in which assets are located. In addition, criminal provisions punishing the transfer and usage of money or assets deriving from a crime (ie, money laundering) are systematically applied to crypto-assets, even when – thanks to their anonym - ity – they are used to hide the illegal origin of funds.
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