The law of ratification and implementation of the Convention was enacted by the Italian Parliament, together with three other European Union instruments against corruption and bribery, on 29 September and was published in the Official Journal on 25 October 2000. The law came into force on 26 October. The instrument of ratification was deposited with the OECD Secretary-General on 15 December 2000. The law provides for non-criminal sanctions of legal persons - whose application is however entrusted to the penal judge. Sanctions include fines of up to Euro 1.5 million. In addition, various penalties can be imposed in most serious cases such as ineligibility, exclusion from public benefits, revocation of authorisations. This new approach will also apply to domestic corruption and some other offences by companies. The text of the decree, through which the provision on the liability of legal persons enters into force, was approved by the Council of Ministers in May 2001. On 8 June 2001, the President of the Republic and the government signed the decree. The legislative decree of 8 June, nr. 231, was published in the official gazette nr. 140 on 19 June. It came into force on 4 July 2001, 15 days after its publication. A code of conduct for public employees as well as a statute providing for the immediate dismissal of corrupt public officials have been published in the official gazette in April 2001.
In autumn 2001, the Italian parliament adopted two laws in areas covered by the Convention: one on mutual legal assistance and another one empowering the Government to issue a legislative decree on company law. The legislative decree, issued on 11 April 2002, contains among others, provisions on accounting offences by legal persons and on criminalisation of private-sector bribery.