Italy product safety for non-EU sellers (MIMIT)

You are selling a consumer product to buyers in Italy. GPSR applies as in the rest of the EU (see GPSR: what it is, and who it reaches). Italy adds four things on top, all in the Codice del consumo as rewritten by D.Lgs. 78/2026: enforcement split by product with MIMIT at the centre, safety information in Italian, a set procedure for an authority’s measures, and a penalty article, art. 112, in force since 16 May 2026. It does not add an Italian representative. A responsible person established anywhere in the EU is enough. The other Italian rules for a non-EU seller are on selling to Italy from the USA.

The decree that carries GPSR out in Italy

D.Lgs. 8 April 2026 n. 78 was published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 111 of 15 May 2026 and has applied since 16 May. It rewrote arts. 102 to 113 of the Codice del consumo to match Regulation (EU) 2023/988 (art. 3) and repealed D.Lgs. 73/1992 and Annex II to the Code, the old RAPEX procedures (art. 5). Two scope rules decide whether the Italian articles reach your product (art. 102):

• The Italian title applies to every product the Regulation defines, online sales included, and only to the aspects and risks that no more specific EU safety requirement covers (art. 102(2) and (3)).
• A product subject to specific safety requirements set by EU harmonisation legislation, such as a toy, electrical equipment or machinery, is outside arts. 104 and 106(1) (art. 102(4)). Its own EU law and Italian decree come first.

Stock that conforms to Directive 2001/95/EC and was placed on the market before 13 December 2024 may still be made available (art. 113(1-bis)).

MIMIT coordinates, and the product decides who checks you

Italy has no single GPSR inspector. The authority that checks a product depends on the product.

The market surveillance authorities are the eight bodies in D.Lgs. 157/2022 art. 3(1): the ministries of enterprise, health, labour and social policy, interior, environment, infrastructure and transport, and agriculture and forestry, and ENAC, the civil aviation authority, each for the activities in its own annex. Annex I gives the enterprise ministry radio equipment, electrical equipment, electromagnetic compatibility, toys, personal protective equipment, machinery, footwear and textile products, among others. They check each in its own field, also through their territorial offices (art. 107(1) and (2)).

MIMIT’s GPSR page states the Regulation and its scope. The ministry’s product contact point gives the information on the Regulation’s implementation in Italy. The EU side of the notification portals is in Safety Gate and Safety Business Gateway.

No Italian representative is required

Art. 104(2) puts on every economic operator the duties of Chapter III of the Regulation according to its role, and the duty to cooperate with the authorities. It adds no representative and no Italian establishment. The Regulation asks for an economic operator based in the EU (Art. 16(1)), in any country. Its name and contact details go on the product, the packaging, the parcel or a document in it (Art. 16(3)). See EU Responsible Person.

The Code adds one label rule of its own. A consumer product or its pack sold in Italy shows the name, company name or mark and the legal seat of the producer or of an importer established in the EU, with postal and electronic address and, where different, the address of the single contact point (art. 6(1)(b)). The address wording came with D.Lgs. 78/2026 art. 2(2)(a), from 16 May 2026. The indications of art. 6 go on the pack or label when the product is put on sale, except the instructions and precautions, which may sit in an accompanying document, a digital one included (art. 7(1)).

Safety information goes in Italian

The Regulation leaves the language of instructions and safety information to the country where the product is sold (Art. 9(7), 11(4), 19(d)). Italy sets Italian, in two places.

The warnings and safety information you show in an offer follow the same language: Art. 19(d) ties them to the language the country sets. What each label and manual must contain is in instructions and safety information and GPSR labelling requirements.

Two edges. First, art. 104 does not apply to a product subject to specific safety requirements set by EU harmonisation legislation (art. 102(4)), and the information chapter of the Code leaves out products governed by specific EU provisions and their Italian implementing rules (art. 8(1)); the text does not say whether the Regulation itself counts as such a provision. Second, a product or pack that does not show the indications of arts. 6, 7 and 9 clearly may not be traded in Italy (art. 11), and the fine is in the table below.

Recall and notification in Italy

A recall in Italy needs the three EU steps, and Italy fixes the language of two of them. Arts. 102 to 113 name one channel to the authorities, the Safety Business Gateway, and no second Italian recall register.

When an authority acts, art. 108 sets the procedure:

• A measure that limits the placing of a product on the market, or orders its withdrawal or recall, must give reasons, state the time limits and the authorities for appeal, and be notified within seven days of its adoption (art. 108(1)).
• Except in a case of grave or immediate danger, you may take part before the measure, attend the checks on your products and submit written comments and documents (art. 108(2)). You may comment after it too, when urgency kept you out (art. 108(3)).
• The authorities notify the corrective measures for serious-risk products on Safety Gate within four working days of the measure, and the enterprise ministry forwards them to the Commission (art. 110).

Marketplaces in Italy

An authority can order a marketplace to remove an offer of a dangerous product, block access to it or show a warning, and the marketplace must act within two working days (Art. 22(4)). Italy adds three points:

• The authorities cooperate with AGCOM, the digital services coordinator, on the marketplace checks of Art. 22 (art. 107(8), D.L. 15 September 2023 n. 123, art. 15(1)).
• A marketplace provider that does not comply with a measure of the authority is punished with the ammenda of EUR 3,000 to 30,000 of art. 112(4). Art. 112 names marketplace providers nowhere else. The marketplace duties of Art. 22 are in Chapter IV of the Regulation, and art. 112(3) names Chapter III.
• Your own listing duties, the Art. 19 information in the offer, are in Chapter III. They fall under art. 112(3), EUR 2,500 to 25,000.

The fields each marketplace asks for are in GPSR marketplace requirements.

What a breach costs

Art. 112 is the penalty article for Italy’s GPSR. Arrest and the ammenda of art. 112(1) and (4) are criminal penalties (Codice penale art. 17). The two fines of art. 112(2) and (3) are administrative.

Art. 15 also sits in Chapter III of the Regulation. The text of art. 112(2) names it on its own, and does not say which band wins. The amounts and the other countries are in GPSR fines.

How the administrative fines run. Law 689/1981 applies so far as compatible (art. 112(6)):

• Notification. The authority notifies the details of the violation within 90 days of the finding, or 360 days for a person resident abroad. The duty to pay lapses for a person who was not notified in time (art. 14).
• Reduced payment. Within 60 days of notification you may pay one third of the maximum or, if more favourable, twice the minimum, plus the costs (art. 16). On the amounts of art. 112(2) and (3) that is EUR 8,000 and EUR 5,000.
• Defence. Within 30 days of notification you may send written defence and documents and ask to be heard. The authority then fixes the sum by reasoned order or closes the case. Payment is due within 30 days of notification of the order, 60 days if you reside abroad (art. 18).
• Opposition. Within 30 days of notification of the order, 60 days if you reside abroad, before the justice of the peace, or before the tribunal where the fine’s maximum exceeds EUR 15,493, which both bands do (D.Lgs. 150/2011 art. 6).

Two rules name the competent chamber. Art. 112(5) leaves art. 12(2) of the Code in place, which puts the report with the chamber of the province of the professional’s residence or registered seat. Law 689/1981 art. 17, applied by art. 112(6), names the office of the place where the violation was committed. For a seller with no Italian seat, the place-of-violation rule is the one that is left. The text does not say how the two combine.

What you do as a seller outside Italy

1. Name a responsible person established in the EU, in any country. See EU Responsible Person for what goes on the product.
2. Check whether the product is subject to specific safety requirements set by EU harmonisation law, such as a toy or electrical equipment. If it is, its own Italian decree comes first, and arts. 104 and 106(1) do not apply to it.
3. Put the warnings, safety information, instructions and precautions in Italian, and show the warnings in your offer in Italian. For a product outside harmonisation law, show the art. 6 indications in Italian too.
4. Keep the technical documentation ten years (guide).
5. If you learn a product is dangerous, take the corrective measure at once, notify the authorities through the Safety Business Gateway, and give consumers a recall notice in Italian, unless the product is under EU harmonisation law. The steps are in product recall under GPSR.
6. When an authority sends a measure, read the time limits and the authorities for appeal it must state (art. 108(1)), and send your written comments and documents.

If you do nothing

An authority can restrict the placing of the product on the market and order its withdrawal or recall, by a reasoned measure notified to you within seven days (art. 108). Not complying with that measure is the crime of art. 112(4). A marketplace that receives an order acts on it, by removal, blocked access or a warning, within two working days (Art. 22(4)). The authority also recovers from you all the costs of its surveillance of a product found non-compliant: tests, the measures that refuse release at the border (Art. 28(1) and (2) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020), and storage of products held before release (D.Lgs. 157/2022 art. 10, applied by Codice art. 106(7)). A dangerous product that stays on the market is a crime under art. 112(1): arrest of six months to one year and an ammenda of EUR 10,000 to 100,000.