Legislative Decree 231/2001

Reporting
- No obligation to report on due diligence plans
Due Diligence
- 2016: comprehensive study assesses the scope of the law and adapts it to the UNGPs
- To prevent liability, the company must prove it adopted a compliance program known as a ‘model of organization, management and control’ that has the potential to prevent the crime
- Establish an internal body entrusted with monitoring and supervising compliance with the model
- It does not expressly describe a due diligence process, but strongly incentivizes adoption of ‘231 models’

Human Rights
- Applies to specific human rights codified as criminal offenses (contained from Art. 24 onwards) including female genital mutilation, slavery, human trafficking, forced labor, juvenile prostitution and pornography, manslaughter or serious bodily harm committed in breach of laws governing the safeguarding of workplace health and safety, employment of illegally staying third-country nationals, racism and xenophobia
Environment
- Specific (severe) environmental crimes like environmental disasters, environmental pollution, or failures to decontaminate
- Applies to both intentional and unintentional harms
Other Social Matters
- Covers criminal offenses like corruption and fraud against the State
Broad ranging

Own Operations
- A parent company may be accountable for the crimes committed by other members of the corporate group, provided that a natural person acting on the parent company's behalf and pursuing its interests also participated in the crime
Subsidiaries
- Companies may incur corporate liability for human rights abuses committed by Italian enterprises (subsidiaries) operating abroad, especially if part of the violations by act or omission occurred in Italian territory and if the state where the offense occurred has not yet initiated proceedings.
- To establish parent company liability for the acts of a subsidiary (offenses that occurred entirely abroad), an employee/manager of the latter must have participated in the commission of the offense and have acted in the corporation's interest. It remains difficult to prove involvement and interest.
Direct Suppliers
Indirect Suppliers
Full Value Chain

Large Companies
- Applies to all corporate/legal entities regardless of size
- Foreign companies which commit crimes in Italy may be held liable
SMEs
- Applies to all corporate/legal entities regardless of size
Other
- State owned companies
- Private legal persons (including foundations)
- Economic public authorities
- Associations (regardless of whether they have legal personality)
- Individual legal entities that form part of a corporate group
All sectors

Monitoring
- The public prosecutor holds powers of investigation
Administrative Sanctions
- Administrative fines based on: severity of the act, degree of liability on the part of the body, and activity performed to eliminate or mitigate the consequences of the act to prevent the commission of further unlawful acts.
- Fines applied for quotas no lower than 100 and no greater than 1000. Amounts range from no less than 258,000 Euros to a maximum amount of 1.549,000 Euros.
Other
- Disqualification measures, seizure of proceeds/profit of the crime, publication of the sentences

Civil Liability
- Failure to adopt a due diligence process does not establish civil liability of the company
- No explicit reference to civil actions
Facilitating Access to Justice
- The Italian Supreme Court ruled that civil actions against legal entities are not admissible under this law, but trial courts have granted victims the right to institute civil actions and claim compensation against corporations under the law (for example ILVA case and Andria/Corato train wreck case)
- In line with Arts. 17 and 19, corporations must pay damages (compensate victims) to avoid disqualification sanctions and to avoid seizure of proceeds/profits of crime
Administrative Corporate Liability
- Corporate responsibility for crimes committed in the interest/to the advantage of a legal entity; the crime was committed by a representative of the corporation; and an organizational fault within the corporation has been determined
- Art. 27 of the Italian Constitution: criminal responsibility is personal so administrative corporate liability with a punitive aim essentially results in criminal liability.
- ThyssenKrupp case: Supreme Court described liability as a separate but closely connected area of criminal liability
- Burden of proof depends on the level of responsibility (high-level employee has relative presumption of liability of the corporation while negative presumption when a model is implemented, and the crime is committed by a low-level employee)