Budget Law

Pec administrators, for Unioncamere no legal deadline

Chambers of Commerce: 30 June is not a sanctionable deadline. The timetable for companies registered on 1 January 2025 in a Mimit note

by Maurizio Pirazzini

24 June 2025

3' min read

Key points

Confusion risk.
Sanctions only applicable with a fixed deadline

3' min read

The chambers of commerce (Milan, Turin, Bergamo, Lecce and Padua, to name but a few) are almost unanimous in their interpretation of the contradiction of the press reports and publicity campaigns that seem to imply a deadline of 30 June - complete with penalties - for the filing of the digital domicile (Pec) of all directors of companies registered as of 1 January 2025.

The Chambers of Commerce are thus putting a stop - at least on this profile, which would touch the wallets of entrepreneurs with the application of sanctions - on the interpretative difficulties of Article 1, paragraph 860, of Law 207/2024 (Budget 2025), which creates a new bureaucratic burden oncompany directors: about 4 million subjects nationwide. No deadline of 30 June 2025 and no sanctions are expressly provided for in the law, although an interpretative indication to this effect was provided, at the first reading of the new provision, by the Ministry of Economic Development.

The ministerial note was followed, on 2 April, by specific comments from the Unioncamere, whose feedback is still awaited, hoping for a revision from the ministerial offices. But the pseudo deadline of 30 June is looming, which is why the Chambers of Commerce have taken a clear and unequivocal position against the existence of the deadline and the application of sanctions. An 'obligation' (but without administrative sanction) introduced by the Budget Law, the rationale of which is still not understood.

Confusion risk

Think of the need to serve a legal document by the public administration or private individuals on the company. The party concerned will have to serve it exclusively at the company's Pec published in the Companies Register since 2008 and certainly not at the Pec that individual directors may publish from 1 January onwards. Think of the potential confusion that could also arise in civil proceedings.

Sanctions only applicable with a fixed deadline

The technicality and the literal wording with which the rule was written, however, lead to the conclusion that there is no time limit within which to comply with this provision. And an express deadline is an essential element that must be provided for at the legislative level for the application of the sanction provided for in Article 2630 of the Civil Code, according to which, 'anyone who, being obliged to do so by law because of the functions he performs in a company or consortium, omits to perform, within the prescribed time limit (...)' is subject to a sanction of between EUR 103 and EUR 1032.

The time limit, in order to proceed with the application of the sanction, must be explicitly 'prescribed' by a provision of law, which is lacking in the present case, as required, moreover, by the rules of principle on administrative sanctions. Article 1 of Law 689/1981 provides, in fact, that "no one may be subjected to administrative sanctions except by virtue of a law that came into force before the violation was committed. Laws that provide for administrative sanctions shall apply only in the cases and for the periods considered therein'. The lack of a deadline by which to comply (30 June is not, in fact, provided for by law) also eliminates the application of administrative sanctions. One less burden and risk for businesses.