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Cookie consent in Italy, by the Garante’s guidelines.
Italy requires consent before a site uses cookies or other trackers that are not technical, under article 122 of the Italian Privacy Code. The Garante’s guidelines of 10 June 2021 set out how: scrolling is not consent, closing the banner keeps the defaults, and a visitor who refused should not be asked again for at least six months unless something changes.
Garante at a glanceOpt-in before tracking
- Applies to
- Cookies and other identifiers on users’ devices, active or passive, such as fingerprinting
- Cookie rule
- Italian Privacy Code (Legislative Decree 196/2003), article 122
- Guidance
- Garante guidelines on cookies and other tracking tools, 10 June 2021
- Enforced by
- Garante per la protezione dei dati personali
- Penalties
- Breaches of article 122 carry GDPR-level fines, up to €20 million or 4% of worldwide turnover
WHAT GARANTE REQUIRES
What the Garante’s guidelines ask of an Italian cookie banner.
THE RULEOnly technical cookies before a choiceBy default, no cookie or tool other than technical ones may be placed when a visitor first arrives, and no other active or passive tracking may run.
WITH KATLAIn GDPR mode, the cookie guard refuses every cookie outside the functional category until the visitor chooses, and deletes any that were set before it ran.
THE RULEClosing the banner means noThe banner needs a command, usually an X in the top right corner, that closes it and keeps the default settings, as visible as the accept button. Alongside it: a button to accept all, and a link to choose by function and third party.
WITH KATLAKatla’s Reject button sits beside Accept on the first layer and closes the banner with only functional cookies, the effect the Garante gives the X. There is no separate close X, and Customise lets visitors choose by category rather than by individual third party.
THE RULENo asking again for six monthsAfter a refusal, the banner may not come back unless the processing changes significantly, the site cannot tell whether a cookie was stored, or at least six months have passed.
WITH KATLAKatla stores a choice, including a refusal, for 12 months, so a visitor who refused is not asked again within six months.
THE RULEScrolling is not consentScrolling down a page is not consent on its own. It can only be one part of a process that records an unambiguous, documented choice.
WITH KATLAKatla has no consent on scroll: a choice is recorded only when the visitor presses Accept or Reject, or saves their choices in Customise.
THE RULEA way back from every pageVisitors must be able to change or withdraw their choices at any time, through an area reached by a link in the footer of every page. The Garante suggests an icon showing the current consent status.
WITH KATLAA floating settings icon, or your own "Cookie settings" link calling katla.open(), reopens the choice on any page.
Garante questions, answered
A summary for website owners, not legal advice. Reviewed against the sources below.
- When did the Garante’s cookie guidelines take effect?
- They were adopted on 10 June 2021 and published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale on 9 July 2021, with six months to comply, so they have applied since January 2022.
- Do analytics cookies need consent in Italy?
- Not if they meet the Garante’s conditions: aggregate statistics for a single site or app, at least the last part of the IP address masked for third-party tools, and no combining the data with other information or passing it on. Otherwise they need consent like any other non-technical cookie.
- Is a cookie wall allowed in Italy?
- Generally not. The Garante treats a cookie wall as unlawful unless the site gives access to equivalent content or services without consent, which it assesses case by case.
- Does the Garante enforce the guidelines?
- Yes. In 2025 it reprimanded website operators whose banners did not follow them, and in one case ordered a site to rename a vague cookie category so visitors could tell what it was for. Breaches of article 122 can carry fines up to €20 million or 4% of worldwide turnover.
- Can the banner be in Italian?
- Yes. Katla’s banner and generated policies are available in Italian, and the widget can follow the visitor’s browser language.
See what your site sets before anyone asks.
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