Yes: if your business has a Partita IVA, Italian law requires that number on the home page of your website, and the tax agency confirmed in 2006 that this applies even when the site only advertises and sells nothing. Add a cookie banner that follows the Garante’s 2021 guidelines (a visible X that means “no”), the identity details every EU business site must carry, and a privacy page, and you have the legal core of an Italian small business website. This guide covers each item, what Italian customers look for, what a site costs, and a worked example.
Does the Partita IVA have to be on my website?
It does. The rule comes from Article 35 of DPR 633/1972, as amended by DPR 404/2001, in force since 1 December 2001. The Agenzia delle Entrate, in Risoluzione 60/E of 16 May 2006, made clear that it covers every holder of a VAT number with a website, including a site that is only a shop window with no online sales.
The text says home page. In practice most businesses place the number in the footer, because a footer appears on the home page and on every other page too, so a visitor who lands on an inner page from Google still sees it. Write it in full, for example “P.IVA 01234567890”, not hidden in an image.
Commentators commonly quote a fine of roughly €258 to €2,066 for leaving it off. Sources disagree about which decree sets that fine, so treat the figure as indicative and ask your commercialista if you are unsure. The fix costs nothing, which makes it the easiest compliance item you will ever tick.
💡 Put the Partita IVA in the footer, as plain text, on every page. That covers the home-page rule and every visitor who arrives deeper in the site.
What else must an Italian business website show?
The Partita IVA is the Italian extra. On top of it sit the EU-wide identity rules of the e-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC, Article 5), which Italy has written into national law. A visitor must be able to find, easily and at any time:
- 1The business name, exactly as registered.
- 2The street address where the business is based.
- 3An email address; under the Directive a web form by itself does not count.
- 4The trade register entry (Registro delle Imprese) if the business is registered.
- 5The supervising body, if your activity needs an authorisation, and your professional order if you belong to a regulated profession.
- 6A privacy page explaining what you do with personal data sent through forms, WhatsApp buttons or booking tools.
Companies (società) have one more layer. The Codice civile, Article 2250, asks companies to show details such as the registered office, the Registro delle Imprese office and number and, for capital companies, the share capital on the space they use to communicate online. Sole traders (ditte individuali) usually need fewer lines. Because the exact list depends on the legal form, the safe step is to send your commercialista a screenshot of the footer before launch.
Italy website legal checklist at a glance
| Item | Where the duty comes from | Where to put it |
|---|---|---|
| Partita IVA | Art. 35 DPR 633/1972; Risoluzione 60/E 2006 | Footer of every page (covers the home page) |
| Name, address, email | e-Commerce Directive, Art. 5 | Footer plus the Contact page |
| Registro Imprese details, capital | Codice civile, Art. 2250 (companies) | Footer or a “Note legali” page |
| Cookie banner with X = refuse | Garante guidelines, 10 June 2021 | First visit, before any tracking runs |
| Cookie and privacy information | GDPR, Arts. 13–14; Garante guidelines | Privacy page, linked in the footer |
| “Review your cookie choices” link | Garante guidelines | Footer of every page |
| Old EU ODR platform link | Platform closed 20 July 2025 | Remove it |
What do the Garante cookie rules say in plain words?
The Garante per la protezione dei dati personali adopted its cookie guidelines on 10 June 2021, and sites had six months from their publication in the Gazzetta Ufficiale to comply. They are stricter on design details than many owners expect.
- 1No marketing or profiling cookie may run before the visitor chooses. On first visit, only technical cookies are allowed.
- 2The banner needs a clearly visible X. Closing it with the X means “no” to everything non-technical, and the visitor keeps browsing normally.
- 3There must be an “accept all” button and a link to a detailed choice area where every optional cookie starts switched off.
- 4Scrolling down the page is not consent.
- 5A cookie wall, where the site refuses entry until you accept, is generally not allowed.
- 6After someone refuses, do not show the banner again for at least six months unless something important changes, such as a new third party.
- 7A footer link must let visitors change their mind at any time.
Analytics gets special treatment. The Garante lets you treat analytics cookies like technical ones, with no consent needed, only if strict conditions are met: at least part of the IP address is masked, the data is used only for aggregate statistics about your own site, and the analytics provider does not combine it with other data. Many popular free analytics set-ups do not meet those conditions out of the box, so they go behind the banner.
What do Italian customers expect from a small business site?
Three habits are worth designing for. First, Italians check for the Partita IVA themselves; a footer without one reads as amateur or suspicious, the way a missing street address would elsewhere. Second, many customers prefer to message rather than fill in a form, so a WhatsApp button next to the phone number is normal and expected. Third, opening hours matter more than people think: lunch closures and August holidays should be written on the site and on your Google Business Profile, or customers turn up to a locked door.
On search, Google held about 87% of the Italian market in September 2026, according to StatCounter, but Yahoo held about 5%, which is unusually high for Europe, and Bing about 6%. Yahoo’s web results have long come from Bing’s index, so registering your site with Bing Webmaster Tools reaches roughly one search in ten that Google alone would miss.
Write the site in Italian first. If you serve tourists or foreign buyers, an English version helps, but it doubles the number of pages to write and check, so add it when there is a reason, not by default.
Worked example: a leather workshop in Florence that wants to sell online
Picture a two-person workshop making bags and belts by hand. Today it sells from its bottega and takes the odd order by WhatsApp. The owners want a site that explains the craft, lists the products with prices and lets visitors outside Florence order.
Their footer carries the business name, the workshop address, an email, the Partita IVA, the Registro delle Imprese details and links to Privacy, Cookie choices and Terms. The banner has an X that refuses, an “accept all” button and a detail panel. Analytics is set up in the masked, aggregate way so it can run without consent, while any advertising pixel waits for a yes.
Because they now sell online to consumers, two EU rules switch on. Buyers get the 14-day right to withdraw from the purchase without giving a reason, counted from delivery, so the terms page must explain how to return an item. A bag engraved with the buyer’s initials is personalised and normally falls outside that right, which the terms should say clearly. The returns wording is the kind of thing worth having a lawyer read once.
On Adyft Sites this is the Shop Starter plan: up to 50 products, customer login, order history, card and Apple or Google Pay, and order alerts on WhatsApp and email, for $3,999 setup plus $129 a month. If the owners only wanted to show the products and take orders by message, the five-page Starter plan ($1,499, then $69 monthly) would be enough.
Is a small Italian online shop covered by the accessibility law?
The European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882) has applied since 28 June 2025 to certain consumer services, and e-commerce is one of them. The test that matters for small firms is size. A microenterprise, meaning fewer than 10 people and annual turnover or balance sheet of €2 million or less, is exempt from the accessibility requirements for services. Count everyone on the payroll, including family members employed by the business, and check both figures each year as you grow.
So the Florence workshop is almost certainly exempt today. A ten-person tile maker in Sassuolo selling online to consumers would not be. Either way, readable text, real labels on form fields and descriptions on photos help every visitor and help search engines understand the page, so ask any provider, us included, how they handle them.
How much does a small business website cost in Italy?
Reliable Italian price data is thin. One published Italian price guide puts a sito vetrina, the classic shop-window site, at about €350 to €1,500, with around €1,500 for five or six pages. We could not find a trustworthy figure for agency prices in Italy, so the honest advice is to get three written quotes against the same page list.
When you compare them, check whether the quote includes writing the text, the cookie banner set-up, hosting after year one and changes after launch. Those are the items that turn a cheap quote into an expensive year.
Adyft Sites charges in US dollars: setup is $1,499 for the five-page Starter and $3,499 for the 25-page Growth plan, with monthly fees of $69 and $129. The monthly fee covers hosting, SSL, security, small changes you send by WhatsApp, Google and AI-search set-up and a monthly visitor report. The domain, about $12 to $20 a year, is registered in your name, and the FAQ, Contact and Privacy pages are free on every plan.
When is Adyft not the right choice for an Italian business?
If you enjoy building things yourself and have the time, a DIY website builder plus a good cookie tool is cheaper, and you will learn a lot. If you need a large custom platform, for example a marketplace or a booking engine tied to your management software, a local agency with a full brief is the better fit. If you want to sit down with someone in Italian every few weeks, hire a freelance designer nearby. Adyft suits owners who want a well-written site live quickly and someone else to look after it. We add the legal and privacy pages with the details you give us; the wording should be checked by your commercialista or lawyer. If you need every page in Italian, ask us before you order.
Italian website questions, answered
Where exactly must the Partita IVA appear on my website?
The law says the home page. Most businesses put it in the footer as plain text, which places it on the home page and on every other page at once. That also helps visitors who arrive on an inner page.
My website does not sell anything. Do I still need the Partita IVA on it?
Yes. The Agenzia delle Entrate’s Risoluzione 60/E of 2006 says the duty applies to every VAT-registered business with a website, including sites that only present the business.
Is a cookie banner with only an “accept” button allowed in Italy?
No. Under the Garante’s 2021 guidelines the banner needs a visible X that closes it and refuses non-technical cookies, plus a route to detailed choices. Scrolling does not count as consent.
Do I need consent for website analytics in Italy?
Only if the analytics does not meet the Garante’s conditions. Analytics with masked IP addresses, used only for aggregate statistics about your own site and not combined with other data by the provider, can be treated like a technical cookie.
Should my site still link to the EU online dispute resolution platform?
No. The ODR platform closed on 20 July 2025 and traders no longer need to link to it. Remove the old link and keep your own complaints contact details clear instead.
How much does a simple website cost in Italy?
One Italian price guide puts a shop-window site at about €350 to €1,500, around €1,500 for five or six pages. Agency prices vary widely, so compare three written quotes for the same page list.
Sources: Partita IVA on websites (Art. 35 DPR 633/1972, Ris. 60/E 2006) — https://www.diritto.it/l-indicazione-della-partita-iva-sul-sito-web-e-obbligatoria/ · Fisco e Tasse — https://www.fiscoetasse.com/normativa-prassi/1004-partita-iva-sito-web.html · Garante, Linee guida cookie e altri strumenti di tracciamento (10 June 2021) — https://www.garanteprivacy.it/home/docweb/-/docweb-display/docweb/9677876 · e-Commerce Directive 2000/31/EC, Art. 5 — https://lawplayer.com/eu/act/32000L0031 · European Accessibility Act, Art. 4 — https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudr/2019/882/article/4 · Your Europe, returns and withdrawal — https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/returns/index_en.htm · ODR platform closure — https://cms.law/en/deu/legal-updates/the-odr-platform-is-closing-what-businesses-need-to-know · An Italian web company’s published website price guide (undated) ·StatCounter, Italy search engine share — https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/italy
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