Is CBD legal in Italy?

Formal status

CBD has been classified as a Novel Food across the EU since January 2019 (Regulation (EU) 2015/2283), and no CBD ingestible holds Union list authorisation anywhere in the EU.

Italy adds two independent national blockers, and the first is decisive. Article 18 of Decree-Law 48/2025 - converted without amendment by Law 80/2025 - inserted paragraph 3-bis into Article 2 of Law 242/2016, prohibiting the importation, transfer, processing, distribution, sale, transport, sending, shipping and delivery of hemp inflorescences and of products containing or consisting of them, expressly including extracts, resins and oils derived from them. Breach carries the criminal penalties of Title VIII of Presidential Decree 309/1990, the narcotics code. The prohibition is categorical: it applies regardless of THC content, and it names shipping and delivery specifically.

Separately, the Ministerial Decree of 27 June 2024 places oral-administration compositions of cannabidiol obtained from cannabis extracts in Section B of the table of medicinal products, making them prescription-only and pharmacy-channel. That wording covers oral sprays and capsules directly.

Do we sell here?

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.

Outlook

Two separate challenges are pending, and neither suspends the current rules. The Constitutional Court is considering whether Article 18 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.

One point worth understanding: 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.

Consiglio di Stato

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.

Consiglio di Stato

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.

TAR Lazio