Codice Penale Art. 615-quater, Illicit Possession or Distribution of Access Devices
Codice Penale, art. 615-quater, as amended by Legge 28 giugno 2024, n. 90
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force since 17 July 2024.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not obtain, hold, produce, reproduce, distribute, or supply codes, passwords, devices, or other means suited to accessing a computer or telematic system protected by security measures, or instructions enabling that access, without authorization.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
Imprisonment up to two years plus a fine up to EUR 5,164 for the base offence (comma 1); imprisonment from two to six years where an art. 615-ter comma-2(1) aggravating circumstance is present (comma 2); imprisonment from three to eight years where the target system is one described in art. 615-ter comma 3 (comma 3), each of the higher tiers carrying no separately stated fine.
Penalty structure
Base-tier fine only (comma 1); the same comma also carries imprisonment up to two years, captured in criminal_exposure. The two higher tiers (commi 2-3) carry imprisonment only, with no separate fine stated in the text.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 6 September 2026
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 5,164
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Whoever, to procure an advantage for themselves or another or to cause harm to another, abusively obtains, holds, produces, reproduces, distributes, imports, communicates, delivers, otherwise makes available to others, or installs apparatus, instruments, parts of apparatus or instruments, codes, passwords or other means suited to accessing a computer or telematic system protected by security measures, or otherwise supplies indications or instructions suited to that purpose, is punished with imprisonment up to two years and a fine up to EUR 5,164 (comma 1).
The penalty rises to imprisonment from two to six years where one of the aggravating circumstances of art. 615-ter, comma 2, number 1) is present (comma 2), and to imprisonment from three to eight years where the conduct concerns the systems described in art. 615-ter, comma 3 (comma 3), both added when Legge 90/2024 amended commi 1-2 and inserted a new comma after comma 2, effective 17 July 2024.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_web
Read the law
official consolidated text of Codice Penale art. 615-quater, Brocardi.it