ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Alessandro Pistochini, Davide Giorgiadi, Giulia Barattini and Carlotta Scozia, Pistochini Avvocati Studio Legale
the interpretation and enforcement of the rules aimed at preventing corruption. For more on this matter, see 8.2 Compliance Guidelines and Best Practices . 1.4 Recent Key Amendments to National Legislation Since 2012, Italy has embarked on a path of wide-ranging structural reforms directly or indi - rectly relating to anti-corruption provisions, which have significantly amended the Italian Criminal Code (ICC), the Code of Criminal Pro - cedure and even the penitentiary system. The most effective amendments to the anti-cor - ruption measures were introduced in 2019 by Law No 3/2019 (the so-called Bribe Destroyer Act), which takes a significant step towards fur - ther advancing the prevention of bribery. Legislative Decree No 75 was issued on 30 July 2020 to implement the Directive on the Fight against Fraud to the Union’s Financial Inter - ests by Means of Criminal Law (EU Directive No 2017/1371; the so-called PIF Directive) and strengthen the fight against corruption. As far as the criminal enforcement of anti-cor - ruption laws is concerned, the institution of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), which started operating on 1 June 2021 (see 7.1 Enforcement ), is also worthy of note. Another crucial amendment to the Italian leg - islation was enacted by Legislative Decree No 150/2022 (published on 17 October 2022), with the purpose of implementing wide-ranging reform of the Italian criminal justice system (the so-called Cartabia Reform). The Cartabia Reform is largely aimed at speeding up crimi - nal trials and makes many modifications to the existing system.
Finally, two significant amendments have impacted Italian legislation in the last few months, namely: • Law No 114/24, which has repealed the crime of abuse in office (Article 323 of the Crimi - nal Code; for more details, see 2.4. Public Officials – Abuse in Office ) and amended the definition of the crime of influence peddling, narrowing the scope of actions that fall under this provision (Article 346-bis of the Criminal Code); and • Law No 112/24, which introduced Article 314- bis into the Criminal Code, titled “Improper Allocation of Money or Properties”, which punishes certain behaviours previously clas - sified as abuse in office (for more details, see 2.4. Public Officials – Abuse in Office ) – this law also classifies such crimes as predicate offences under Legislative Decree No 231/01. 2. Bribery and Corruption Elements 2.1 Bribery The Italian legislator punishes corruption offenc - es by means of a complex regulatory system aimed at dealing with different types of crimes, which are provided for in Articles 318, 319, 319- ter and 320 (passive bribery), and Articles 321 and 322 (active bribery), of the ICC. More specifically, the ICC considers a public official or person performing a public service to have committed a criminal offence if: • to exercise their functions or powers, they unduly receive, for themself or a third party, money or another advantage, or accept a promise thereof (Article 318 – bribery for the exercise of a function);
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