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Information Technology

Italy

The Court of Cassation has penalised the senders of email newsletters without the recipients' prior consent with nine months' imprisonment. The Data Protection Code criminalises the processing of personal data without the data subject's consent and with the intent to gain profit or cause harm. In this case, the harm sustained by the recipients was linked merely to the time lost in going through the non-requested emails.

The Criminal Court of Cassation has issued a final decision in favour of StanleyBet's data transmission centres, finding that their business operations comply with Italian and EU law. The company operates a highly successful business model based on 200 agencies which do not hold an Italian gaming licence or pay Italian gaming taxes, but operate as internet cafés that offer bets under Stanley's UK gaming licence.

The IP Court of Florence has ruled on the liability of search engines and the circumstances in which they are obliged to remove infringing material. The court's view of Google as a caching provider reflects the conclusion reached in the recent Yahoo! case, albeit that this view had different outcomes for the two search engines in question.

The new Privacy Code amendments closely reflect the wording of Recital 66 of EU Directive 2009/136/EC and Section 5(3) of the EU Directive on the Processing of Personal Data - and, as such, pose many of the same interpretation problems, especially with regard to the nature of consent required for compliance. However, with the law already in force, companies across Italy must familiarise themselves with the new provisions.

The transfer of personal data from an outsourcer based in Italy to an outsourcee based in a non-EU jurisdiction can be carried out only if there is a sound legal basis to do so. Italian outsourcing clients should carefully consider the structure of the arrangement from a data privacy perspective and ensure that they understand the issues that arise when data crosses EU borders.

Parliament is about to ratify a new legislative decree on electronic health records, online examination records and the use of information technology in the medical sector in general. The decree represents a significant opportunity for providers of cloud computing services, but the processing of personal medical data (and, in some cases, genetic data) raises important privacy-related issues.

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Insurance & Reinsurance

Italy

Overview
Including: Government as Insurer; Private Insurance; Authorization; Regulatory Body; Insurance Contract; Loss Insurance; Life Insurance; Mandatory Insurance

In the context of the liberalisation measures recently adopted by Parliament with a view to increasing competition in the insurance sector, IVASS, the insurance regulator, recently issued a draft order that requires insurers to allow insureds to access information relating to their insurance contracts through dedicated areas on their websites.

A 2012 decree-law includes several new provisions governing third-party liability car insurance. These include the establishment of new terms for the submission of data to the claims database of IVASS (the insurance regulator), the introduction of a new report form for insurers in order to prevent fraud and the insurers' obligation to inform clients of the tariffs of competing companies.

In light of Italy's ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, IVASS, the insurance regulator, has issued a letter calling on companies to adjust their health insurance policies with the aim of eliminating discriminatory provisions that limit or prohibit coverage of persons with mental illness or disabilities.

Decree-Law 179 recently introduced important changes to the insurance market, including with respect to compulsory motor liability insurance, insurers' websites, insurance mediation and the statute of limitations. A new law has partially amended the decree-law by reducing the originally planned 10-year term statute of limitations for non-life insurance contracts.

A new law has introduced important changes affecting the insurance market. Among other things, the law provides for a maximum duration for mandatory motor liability insurance policies, mandates that insurers provide up-to-date policy information on their websites and revokes the prohibition against insurance agents entering into cooperation agreements among themselves for insurance mediation.

The insurance regulator, ISVAP, has published amendments to Regulation 20/2008 regarding internal audits, risk management, compliance and outsourcing of insurers' operations. The amendments adjust certain provisions to accord with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors Insurance Core Principle 7 regarding the principles of corporate governance.

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