On 9 March 2026, Legislative Decree No. 30 of 20 February 2026 was published in the Italian Official Gazette, entitled “Implementation of Directive (EU) 2024/825 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 February 2024 amending Directives 2005/29/EC and 2011/83/EU as regards empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and better information”. The decree will enter into force on 24 March 2026.

The decree amends the Italian Consumer Code (Legislative Decree No. 206/2005), introducing changes both to the rules on unfair commercial practices and to information obligations in consumer relationships. In particular, the following developments should be noted:

• article 18 of the Consumer Code introduces new definitions, including those of “environmental claim”, “generic environmental claim”, “sustainability label” and “certification scheme”. In particular, a “certification scheme” must meet a specific list of criteria, including that “monitoring of the economic operator’s compliance with the requirements of the scheme is carried out through an objective procedure by a third party whose competence and independence—both from the scheme owner and from the economic operator—are based on international, European Union or national standards and procedures”. The decree also introduces the definition of “recognised excellent environmental performance”, defined as “environmental performance compliant with Regulation (EC) No. 66/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 (EU Ecolabel), with a national or regional Type I eco-labelling scheme in accordance with EN ISO 14024 officially recognised in the Member States, or with the best environmental performance under other applicable provisions of EU law”;

• article 21 of the Consumer Code introduces two additional forms of misleading actions: making an environmental claim relating to future environmental performance without including clear, objective, verifiable and publicly available commitments; and advertising as consumer benefits elements that are irrelevant and do not derive from the characteristics of the product or the undertaking;

• article 23 of the Consumer Code lists additional unfair commercial practices that are prohibited, including displaying a sustainability label that is not based on a certification scheme or established by public authorities, and making a generic environmental claim where the trader cannot demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance relevant to the claim;

• new pre-contractual information obligations are introduced for businesses regarding product durability and reparability, including the obligation to provide consumers, before the conclusion of the contract, with a reminder of the existence of the legal guarantee of conformity and, where available, information on the existence and duration of a commercial durability guarantee;

• the reminder regarding the legal guarantee of conformity for goods and the information on any commercial durability guarantee must be provided through, respectively, a harmonised notice (Annex II-octies, Part 1 of the decree) and a harmonised label (Annex II-octies, Part 2).

The new provisions will apply from 27 September 2026.