On June 27, 2024, Baker McKenzie hosted an Italian-language webinar on sanctions and geopolitical risks. The webinar, which attracted hundreds of registrants, included sessions on EU, US, and UK sanctions developments and enforcement, led by Baker McKenzie lawyers Roberto Cursano (Rome), Riccardo Ovidi (Rome), Kerry Contini (Washington DC), and Sunny Mann (London).
The centerpiece of the webinar was a fireside chat led by Roberto Cursano with Giovanni Brignone, one of the lead officials for sanctions implementation at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Filippo Mancuso, the trade compliance responsible person for Assonime (the Association of Joint-Stock Companies), a well-respected industry association in Italy. The key points from the fireside chat portion of the webinar are summarized below.
- Enforcement of enhanced EU anti-circumvention measures: The new EU anti-circumvention measures in the EU’s 14th sanctions package (described in our recent blog post here) have been a major topic of discussion across the European Union. It will be important to watch how these measures, which are quite general, will be enforced in practice.
- Compliance with new EU due diligence requirements: Companies in Italy should focus on complying with new obligations on EU companies to conduct due diligence and implement controls relating to the activities of their third-country subsidiaries and counterparties.
- Implementation of criminal penalties for sanctions in Italy: EU Directive 2024/1226 requires EU Member States to establish criminal penalties for sanctions violations by April 2025 (see our blog post describing this EU directive here). In Italy, this directive will likely be implemented by adding sanctions crimes to the list of crimes for which corporate entities can be penalized under Legislative Decree 231/2001. That decree provides for an exemption from liability for companies that have implemented a compliance program.
- Importance of compliance programs: Given the continued expansion of EU and international sanctions against Russia, companies in Italy should assess their risk exposure and consider adopting or enhancing their written sanctions compliance program, including sanctions compliance policies and procedures. This program should be tailored to the company’s organization, business and sanctions risks.
