Is CBD legal in Italy?

24 August 2026

A flag of Italy, next to the chemical structure of CBD

Situación formal

Since January 2019, CBD has sat on the EU's Novel Food list under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 — no member state has authorised it, and none currently can.

Italy adds two independent national blockers, and the first is decisive. A 2025 statute amending Italy's hemp law prohibits importing, distributing, selling, transporting, shipping and delivering hemp inflorescences and any product containing or consisting of them, expressly including extracts, resins and oils derived from them. Breach carries criminal penalties under Italy's narcotics code. The prohibition is categorical: it applies regardless of THC content, and it names shipping and delivery specifically.

Separately, a ministerial decree of 27 June 2024 places oral-administration compositions of cannabidiol obtained from cannabis extracts on the prescription-only medicines table, making them pharmacy-channel. That wording covers oral sprays and capsules directly.

¿Vendemos aquí?

No.

We don't currently sell CBD products to Italy. Italian law prohibits shipping and delivering cannabis-derived extracts, resins and oils - regardless of THC content - under criminal penalties, and this applies specifically to the act of sending a product into the country. That's a firmer position than most countries we do sell to, where the question is how actively an unauthorised-food rule is being enforced. Here the law names the act directly, so we don't ship.

Perspectivas

Two separate challenges are pending, and neither suspends the current rules. The Constitutional Court is considering whether the 2025 prohibition is compatible with the Italian constitution, following referrals from criminal courts. Separately, the Court of Justice of the EU has been asked whether the 2024 medicines listing is compatible with EU free-movement rules. Referrals of this kind typically take well over a year, so neither is likely to produce an answer before late 2027 at the earliest.

Even a complete industry win on the medicines decree would leave the shipping prohibition standing, because that is a separate statute which the case does not challenge. Italian courts have repeatedly struck down individual local closure orders on the ground that a product without demonstrable psychoactive effect causes no harm, but those rulings bind only the cases they decide and have not disturbed the statute. Widely-repeated reporting that the rules are "suspended" is inaccurate.

Timeline

August 2024

The Ministerial Decree of 27 June 2024 enters into force, placing oral-administration compositions of cannabidiol obtained from cannabis extracts in Section B of the table of medicinal products - prescription-only and pharmacy-channel.

Gazzetta Ufficiale

April 2025

Article 18 of Decree-Law 48/2025 inserts Article 2(3-bis) into Law 242/2016, prohibiting the import, transfer, processing, distribution, sale, transport, sending, shipping and delivery of hemp inflorescences and of products containing or consisting of them, including extracts, resins and oils derived from them, under the criminal penalties of Presidential Decree 309/1990. Converted without amendment by Law 80/2025.

Gazzetta Ufficiale

November 2025

Consiglio di Stato order 8813/2025 refers questions to the Court of Justice of the EU on whether Italian law may bar leaves, flowers, oil and resin derived from certified low-THC hemp varieties.

Sistema Penale, con il testo dell'ordinanza CdS 8813/2025

December 2025

The Brindisi criminal court refers Article 18 of Decree-Law 48/2025 to the Italian Constitutional Court, questioning its compatibility with constitutional guarantees including the requirement that a criminal offence involve actual harm.

Tribunale di Brindisi, sez. GIP-GUP (via Misterlex)

June 2026

The Liguria regional administrative court suspends a mayoral order closing CBD vending machines in Ventimiglia, holding that a ban requires concrete proof of psychoactive effect - one of several local enforcement measures struck down without disturbing the underlying statute.

Il Fatto Quotidiano

August 2026

Consiglio di Stato orders 6198, 6200 and 6202/2026 refer five questions on the 2024 oral-CBD medicines listing to the Court of Justice of the EU and stay the Italian proceedings. The listing itself is not suspended.

Quotidiano Sanita, reporting Consiglio di Stato ordinanza 6202/2026

August 2026

The Lazio regional administrative court rejects two further challenges to the 2024 oral-CBD medicines listing, upholding it on the merits eleven days after the referral to the Court of Justice of the EU.

Dolce Vita, reporting TAR Lazio 14273/2026

Ingredientes

Consultar la legalidad de nuestros otros ingredientes en Italy.