Foreign Trade: EU Sanctions, New Offenses, and 231 Liability

Do you operate internationally? Your responsibilities have just become much heavier! The new Legislative Decree 211/2025, transposing an EU directive, revolutionizes the sanctioning framework for those who violate the Union's restrictive measures, introducing new criminal offenses and aggravating the liability of entities.

⚠️ EU Sanctions: Increased Liability Legislative Decree 211/2025, effective from January 24, 2026, has transformed the legislation on European Union restrictive measures. This transposition of EU Directive n. 2024/1226 aims to strengthen the effectiveness of sanctions, making violations a serious criminal offense and expanding the responsibilities of companies and managers in international trade. It is no longer just about administrative sanctions, but genuine convictions that can lead to asset confiscation and custodial sentences.

⚖️ New Offenses and Legislative Decree 231 The decree introduces new types of offenses into the penal code, including intentional or negligent violation of restrictive measures, failure to communicate information, and non-compliance with authorization conditions. These new offenses have been included among the predicate offenses of Legislative Decree 231/2001, exposing companies to heavy monetary penalties calculated on turnover, in addition to confiscation and publication of the judgment. Compliance with sanction regulations therefore becomes an inescapable pillar of corporate governance.

🎯 What to do - Update your internal procedures: Review and adapt your due diligence protocols for international operations, integrating new obligations and checks against sanction lists. - Train personnel: Ensure that your teams, particularly those involved in foreign trade and export, are fully aware of the new responsibilities and risks. - Evaluate the adequacy of Model 231: Verify that your Organization, Management, and Control Model is updated to include the new predicate offenses and mitigate the risk of sanctions.