The Law of 13 June 2025, No. 91, published in the Official Gazette on 25 June 2025, No. 145, granted the Government the authority to transpose into national law Directive (EU) 2023/1544 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 on the designation of the appointment of legal representatives for the purpose of gathering electronic evidence in criminal proceedings.
Electronic evidence
Electronic evidence refers to data stored by or on behalf of a service provider, in electronic form, used to investigate and prosecute criminal offences, including subscriber data, data used to identify the user, traffic data, and content data.
Scope of the directive
The Directive aims to facilitate and speed up access to electronic evidence used to investigate and prosecute criminal offences, regardless of the location of the data, by removing existing obstacles to the free provision of services and preventing the adoption of divergent national approaches.
The addressees of the directive: service providers
All service providers offering services within the European Union must designate a legal presence or appoint a legal representative responsible for receiving, complying with, and executing decisions and orders issued by the competent authorities of the Member States for the purpose of obtaining electronic evidence in criminal proceedings. This ensures that all service providers operating within the Union are subject to the same obligations regarding access to electronic evidence.
The service providers
For the purposes of the Directive, a service provider is any entity offering electronic communications services, such as internet access services or interpersonal communications services; internet domain name and IP numbering services, such as the allocation of IP addresses, domain name registry services, and privacy or proxy services related to domain names; as well as other information society services that enable users to communicate with one another or that store or process data on behalf of the user, such as social networks, online marketplaces, and other hosting service providers.
Central authorities
Member States shall designate one or more central authorities to ensure that the Directive is applied in a consistent and proportionate manner. Consequently, the Government is required to identify, among the specific guiding principles and criteria, one or more authorities to act as the central authority.
Penalties
Member States must lay down rules on effective, proportionate, and dissuasive penalties applicable to infringements of the national provisions adopted pursuant to the Directive and take all measures necessary to ensure that they are implemented.
Transposition
Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 18 February 2026.
The law firm Dal Pozzo in Milan provides legal assistance to private individuals, public entities, and businesses, including matters related to cybercrimes.