Selling into Italy through distributors

How the market buys

Italian public purchasing runs on two tracks. The first is national: Consip, the public purchasing company of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, runs the Acquisti in rete PA platform with conventions (Convenzioni), framework agreements (Accordi quadro), a dynamic purchasing system and MePA, the electronic marketplace for public administration. Suppliers apply to be admitted to MePA and to the dynamic system; administrations then order from admitted suppliers or send them requests for quotation. The second track is everything else: ministries, regions, municipalities, health bodies and universities running their own procedures.

Publication is centralised. Under the public contracts code (d.lgs. 36/2023, art. 85), contract notices and award notices are published nationally in ANAC's national public contracts database and on the contracting authority's own website, and their legal effects run from publication in the database. ANAC's Piattaforma di Pubblicità a Valore Legale is its platform for that legally valid publication.

For a manufacturer the consequence is the same as elsewhere in Europe. Italian buyers deal with a company that invoices in Italy, answers in Italian and is admitted to the instruments they use. In our analysis of TED award notices for supplies (September 2026), 97% of the winners in the 3,067 notices from buyers in Italy were companies registered in the country (96% across the 30 EU and EEA countries); those local winners include distributors and dealers as well as manufacturers' own local subsidiaries — see our methodology. The ones already winning in your category are the way in.

Lawful first contact

Italy requires consent. Article 130 of the Codice in materia di protezione dei dati personali permits promotional communications by automated means only "con il consenso del contraente o utente", and paragraph 2 applies the same rule to e-mail. Article 121 defines a contraente as any natural person, legal person, body or association that has a contract with an electronic communications provider, so a company's own mailbox is covered. The Garante's 2013 guidelines on promotional activity and spam add that prior consent is needed even when addresses are taken from public registers, lists, websites or documents anyone can see. The one exception, article 130(4), lets you write to your own customers whose address you obtained in a sale, about similar products, with an opt-out offered each time.

The same 2013 guidelines record that since 6 December 2011 companies could no longer file a complaint with the Garante about spam. The Codice as amended in 2018 is broader: a formal complaint (reclamo) is for the data subject (art. 141), but anyone, a company included, can send the Garante a report (segnalazione), and the Garante can act on its own initiative (art. 144); civil courts remain open too. None of this changes what the law requires.

Post and live telephone calls are governed by separate paragraphs of the same article (130(3) and 3-bis), which refer to the public opt-out register, the Registro pubblico delle opposizioni. What works: a letter by post to the owner or commercial director, in Italian, with a one-page product sheet and a clear reason why your range fits what the distributor already sells; a stand or a visit at the sector's trade fair; an introduction through an association, an agent or an existing Italian partner; and a fast, complete reply to any enquiry. Once a distributor has written to you, e-mail is fine.

What local distributors expect

• Italian-language documentation: technical sheets, instructions, safety information and price lists. Tender files are in Italian.
• A route onto the instruments buyers use. If your category is bought through MePA or a Consip convention, ask whether the distributor is already admitted and what it needs from you to list your range there.
• Conformity evidence for the category: CE marking and declarations where the product is regulated, and test reports against the standards buyers specify.
• A clear commercial structure: margin, territory, exclusivity, and who handles after-sales and spare parts.
• Prices and lead times you can hold for the life of a convention or framework.
• References and samples.

How to enter, step by step

1. Prepare an Italian file. Translate technical sheets, instructions, safety information and price lists into Italian; tender files are in Italian.
2. Assemble conformity evidence. Have CE marking and declarations ready where the product is regulated, plus test reports against the standards Italian buyers specify.
3. Find who already wins your category. Start with the award notices above the EU thresholds on TED for your CPV codes; Cresques reads these and lists the winning companies. Nationally, contract and award notices are published in ANAC's national public contracts database and on the contracting authority's own website.
4. Check the Consip instruments. See whether your category is bought through Acquisti in rete PA — a convention, a framework agreement, the dynamic purchasing system or MePA. Suppliers apply to be admitted to MePA and the dynamic system, so ask whether the distributor is already admitted and what it needs from you to list your range.
5. Make the first contact by letter, fair or introduction. Do not send a cold promotional e-mail. Write by post, in Italian, to the owner or commercial director with a one-page product sheet and a clear reason why your range fits what the distributor already sells; or meet at the sector's trade fair, or ask an association, an agent or an existing Italian partner for an introduction.
6. Reply fast, then move to e-mail. Answer any enquiry quickly and completely. Once a distributor has written to you, e-mail is fine.
7. Prepare the first meeting. Bring a clear structure for margin, territory, exclusivity, after-sales and spare parts, and prices and lead times you can hold for the life of a convention or framework.
8. Back it with proof. Bring references and samples, and keep watching new award notices in your categories to see where the distributor wins.

Where the evidence comes from

Above the EU thresholds — EUR 140,000 for supplies and services bought by central government bodies and EUR 216,000 for other public authorities from 1 January 2026 — Italian buyers must publish contract award notices on TED, the online supplement to the Official Journal of the EU. Each notice names the winning company and carries CPV codes, so the distributors that repeatedly win, for example, hospital consumables or school furniture contracts in a region can be identified from the public record. Nationally, the same notices go to ANAC's database.

Cresques reads the award notices for the CPV categories you choose and shows who already sells that category in Italy. It does not help you bid for the contracts; the notices are evidence of who the buyers already trust, and the lawful first contact above is how you reach them.