New offences and broader decree 231 to protect agri-food assets

Introduction of new offences, rewriting of already existing ones, organic rearrangement in the Penal Code, interventionson decree 231 on corporate liability. With final approval by the Chamber of Deputies, pending publication in the 'Official Gazette', the law on the protection of agrifood products constitutes a significant element of attention to a crucial asset of the national economy. Upstream is the elaboration of the commission established at the Ministry of Justice years ago and led by former Palermo prosecutor Giancarlo Caselli.

On a regulatory level, the law establishes a new Chapter II bis within the Code to penalise offences against the agri-food heritage in an innovative way. In detail, introduced are the new offences of food fraud and of trading foodstuffs with misleading signs. The former replaces the sale of non-genuine foodstuffs. The new measure, compared to the old one, introduces protection in advance of the moment of selling or marketing of the products: it punishes whoever, in the exercise of agricultural, industrial, commercial and intermediary activities, among other things, imports, exports, transports, offers for sale, distributes or puts into circulation, also by means of distance communication techniques or digital means, 'food water or beverages that in origin, provenance, quality or quantity are substantially different from those indicated, declared or agreed upon'. The sanction ranges from two months to one year in prison and a fine from 1,000 to 4,000 euro; specific intent is required, but punishability is expressly excluded for cases of limited offensiveness for the consumer.

The other new offence is the use of signs that mislead the buyer about the origin, provenance, quality or quantity of foodstuffs or ingredients. The conduct must, therefore, be characterised by a misleading purpose; with reference instead to the objective scope, the new offence is applicable to anyone who carries out an agricultural, industrial, commercial, import or export activity, or is engaged in the intermediation of foodstuffs, including water and beverages. As for the sanction, imprisonment from 3 to 18 months and a fine of up to EUR 20,000 is envisaged.

The offence then originally envisaged as an autonomous offence of agropiracy has been transformed into an aggravating circumstance of the offences of food fraud and trading foodstuffs with misleading signs: the typical conduct of the offence of agro-piracy, i.e. the commission of the two new offences, outside the cases governed by Articles 416 and 416 bis, with several operations and through the setting up of means and continuous organised activities, has as a consequence the increase of punishment from one third to one half.

The punitive treatment of the offence of counterfeiting of geographical indications or designations of origin of agri-food products has been tightened up, establishing the punishment of imprisonment from 1 to 4 years (instead of the current provision of imprisonment of up to 2 years) and a fine from 10,000 to 50,000 euro (today the maximum is 20,000 euro).