This blog was last updated on May 18, 2021

In September 2020, Italy introduced major changes to the country’s rules on the creation and preservation of electronic documents. These new requirements were expected to be enforced on 7 June 2021. However the Agency for Digital Italy (AGID) has now decided to postpone the introduction of the new e-document rules until 1 January 2022.

The new ‘Guidelines for the creation, management, and preservation of electronic documents’ (“Guidelines”) regulate different aspects of an electronic document. By following the Guidelines, businesses benefit from the presumption that their electronic documents will provide full evidence in court.

The postponement of the introduction of the Guidelines is a reaction from the AGID to claims of local organizations who have particularly expressed concern about the obligation to associate metadata with e-documents. The Guidelines set forth an extensive list of metadata fields to keep with e-documents in a way that will enable interoperability.

Metadata requirements modified

In addition to delaying the introduction of the new e-document legislation, AGID also modified metadata requirements. This includes new pieces of metadata and changing the description of some fields. The AGID has also corrected references – especially to standards – and rephrased statements to clarify some obligations.

The updated Guidelines and their corresponding Appendices are available on the AGID website.