In short. Article 13 requires electronic acknowledgment without unjustified delay, with specified contents and exceptions for non-consumer agreements and email-only contracts.
Definition: An order acknowledgment confirms receipt of an electronically submitted order. As of 17 October 2026, Article 13 of Italy's Legislative Decree 70/2003 requires an electronic acknowledgment without unjustified delay, subject to exceptions for a different agreement between non-consumers and contracts concluded exclusively through email or equivalent individual communications.
Key facts
- The official publication of Article 13(2) requires the acknowledgment to include contract terms, essential product or service characteristics, and detailed payment and cost information.
- Normattiva's Article 13(3) and (4) treats an order and acknowledgment as received when their addressees can access them, and excludes email-only or equivalent individual contracts from that rule and the acknowledgment duty.
- The E-Commerce Directive, Article 11(1), also requires acknowledgment by electronic means without undue delay, with an exception for a different agreement between parties who are non-consumers.
What must the acknowledgment contain?
Article 13(2) in the Gazzetta Ufficiale text requires a summary of the general and specific conditions applicable to the contract. It also requires information about the essential characteristics of the goods or service.
The same paragraph requires detailed information on the price, payment methods, withdrawal, delivery costs and applicable taxes. A receipt containing only an order reference leaves out the information expressly listed in Article 13(2). The statutory timing standard is “without unjustified delay”; the paragraph gives no fixed deadline in hours or days.
When does receipt occur, and does it settle contract formation?
Under Article 13(3) on Normattiva, the order and acknowledgment are deemed received when the parties to whom they are addressed can access them. The statutory trigger is the possibility of access, so actual reading is unnecessary under this rule.
Article 13(1) preserves the rules on the conclusion of contracts when a customer submits an order electronically. Article 13(2) then imposes the acknowledgment duty. The article therefore addresses receipt while leaving the rules on contract formation applicable to the transaction.
Which exceptions apply?
Article 13(2) and (4) sets out exceptions with different scopes. Paragraph 2 allows a different agreement between parties who are non-consumers. A transaction between businesses therefore needs such an agreement to depart from that paragraph's acknowledgment requirement; business status alone supplies no exemption.
Paragraph 4 excludes contracts concluded exclusively through an exchange of email messages or equivalent individual communications from both paragraphs 2 and 3. It covers the acknowledgment obligation and the deemed-receipt rule. The word “exclusively” matters: sending an acknowledgment by email after a website order does not itself satisfy the condition that the contract be concluded exclusively through those communications.
What does the EU ordering framework add?
The E-Commerce Directive on EUR-Lex addresses the ordering process as well as receipt. Article 10(1) requires advance information about the technical steps for concluding the contract, whether the contract is stored and accessible, the means of correcting input errors, and the available contract languages, subject to its non-consumer agreement exception.
Article 10(3) requires supplied contract terms and general conditions to be available in a form the recipient can store and reproduce. Article 11(2) separately requires appropriate, effective and accessible technical means to identify and correct input errors before the order is placed, again subject to a different agreement between non-consumers.
Related terms
- When must an online shop acknowledge receipt of an order?
- What must a shop explain about the online ordering process?
- What legal information must an Italian business website publish?
FAQ
Can my shop opt out through its consumer terms?
Article 13(2) limits the different-agreement exception to parties who are non-consumers. The Italian text therefore provides no such opt-out for a consumer contract.
Does an email acknowledgment exempt my website checkout?
Article 13(4) applies to contracts concluded exclusively by email exchange or equivalent individual communications. Normattiva's text makes the method of concluding the contract the condition for this exception.
Sources
- Gazzetta Ufficiale, "Legislative Decree 70/2003, Article 13: Inoltro dell'ordine", 14 April 2003
- Normattiva, "Legislative Decree 70/2003, Article 13", version in force on 17 October 2026
- EUR-Lex, "Directive 2000/31/EC", 8 June 2000
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