Italy strengthens sanctions: new criminal penalties related to EU restrictive measures

From January 24, 2026, Italy will activate a major tightening of its criminal framework related to violations of European sanctions, following the transposition of an EU directive. Concretely, the country is establishing a more structured and stricter regime, which treats the violation of restrictive measures no longer as a secondary subject attached to other provisions, but as an autonomous penal corpus.

The reform formalizes offenses and introduces a more explicit logic of criminal liability, with penalties that can include years of imprisonment and significant fines, depending on the nature of the violations. The message is clear: sanctions are no longer just a “paper” compliance constraint, but a field where mistakes, negligence, or circumvention now expose one to direct judicial consequences.

For international logistics — freight forwarders, shipowners, charterers, shippers, brokers, banks, and insurers — the impact is immediate: it becomes crucial to strengthen screening processes, counterparty verification, documentary traceability, and validation of sensitive operations (routes, goods, beneficiaries, transactions).

In an environment where flows are global and sometimes complex, this evolution is pushing companies to further professionalize compliance: the risk is no longer abstract, it becomes operational and potentially criminal.

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