Plant passport fines in Italy (Legislative Decree 19/2021)
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In Italy, plant passport breaches are fined €500 to €15,000 each, under article 55 of Legislative Decree 19/2021. Moving plants without the passport they need, or issuing one without authorisation, costs €2,500 to €15,000; not keeping the required records, or issuing a passport with the wrong content or format, €1,000 to €6,000. Regional plant protection services impose the fines.
This guide puts the law in plain words. It is not legal advice: the text of article 55 is what applies, and for a specific case ask your region's plant protection service or a lawyer. Article 55 on Normattiva, in Italian
What are the fines for plant passport breaches?
From €500 to €15,000 per breach, depending on the comma of article 55 that applies. Article 55 applies unless the act is a crime (c. 1), and the regional plant protection services impose the fines (c. 30). It has not been amended since it came into force on 13 March 2021.
| Art. 55 | Breach | Fine |
|---|---|---|
| c. 9 | Not reporting at once to the regional plant protection service a pest you find or suspect (a Union quarantine pest, a priority pest, or one not reported in Italy before), or not notifying information you hold about an imminent pest danger. | €1,000 to €6,000 |
| c. 16 | Carrying on an activity that requires registration in the RUOP (Reg. (EU) 2016/2031, Art. 65(1)) without being registered, or after the registration was revoked. | €1,000 to €6,000 |
| c. 17 | As a professional or authorised operator, breaching the duty to record and keep data, and not ensuring the traceability systems required by Art. 69 of Reg. (EU) 2016/2031. | €1,000 to €6,000 |
| c. 17 | Moving plants, plant products or other objects within Italy and the EU, or into or within a protected zone, without a plant passport (Art. 78). | €2,500 to €15,000 |
| c. 18 | Issuing a plant passport without the authorisation of art. 37, c. 1 of the decree, or while that authorisation is suspended or withdrawn. | €2,500 to €15,000 |
| c. 19 | Holding the authorisation but not complying with art. 37, c. 2 of the decree and with the Regulation's rules on the passport's content and format, its requirements, the examinations, attaching it and the authorised operator's obligations (Art. 83(1) and (2), 85, 86(1), 87(1) to (3), 88(1), 90(1) and (2)). | €1,000 to €6,000 |
| c. 20 | Replacing a plant passport under Art. 93 without meeting Art. 93(3) and (5): the plants still traceable, still compliant and unchanged, and the replaced passport kept for at least three years. | €500 to €3,000 |
| c. 21 | Knowing that a trade unit under your control does not meet Art. 83 to 87, 89, 90, 93 or 94, and not invalidating its plant passport and, where possible, removing it (Art. 95). | €1,000 to €6,000 |
Repeat a breach of comma 17 or 19, among others, within three years of the first, and the regional service suspends your authorisation to issue passports for three months (c. 27).
Refusing inspectors access to your premises, or obstructing their work, is fined €2,500 to €15,000 (c. 25).
What do inspections find?
Inspections are real: the plant protection service must inspect businesses authorised to issue passports at least once a year (Reg. (EU) 2016/2031, Art. 92).
In Tuscany, most pass. In 2024, the region's plant protection service inspected 652 authorised businesses. Of the 666 inspection reports, 576 (86%) ended with no recommendation; the other 90 (14%) gave one or more. The weak points it names are the plant examinations behind each passport and how they are recorded, and traceability systems that were in place but not effective for the business. Source: Regione Toscana, 2024 annual report of the plant protection service (PDF, in Italian)
The law requires the passport and the records behind it, not any particular tool to produce them.
How do you stay on the right side?
- Register in the RUOP before you start, and get your region's authorisation before you issue a passport (c. 16 and c. 18).
- Print every passport in the EU format, with A, B, C and D.
- For each trade unit, record who supplied it and who you supplied it to, and for every passport you issue, the passport's details. Keep these records for at least three years after the plants were supplied to or by you (Art. 69).
- Replace a passport only when the plants are still traceable, still meet the requirements and have not changed, and keep the replaced passport or its content for at least three years (Art. 93(3) and (5)).
- If a trade unit no longer meets the rules, invalidate its passport, remove it where possible, and inform the plant protection service (Art. 95).
What to record, and for how long: The traceability code and the records behind it
Not sure what goes on the label? Reading the label, part by part
Received plants with a passport that looks wrong? Checking a passport you received
Keeping the record with FloraPass
FloraPass issues passports in the EU format and keeps the records around them: batches, suppliers and customers, replacement passports, and voided passports, which stay on the record. When an inspector asks, the inspection register downloads as PDF or CSV.