The reports currently circulating claiming that there is an obligation for all private individuals to hold and register a PEC are FALSE. Pursuant to Article 6-quater of Legislative Decree no. 82/2005, from 6 July 2023 there will be the option to activate a PEC (certified electronic mail) and register it with the INAD (national register of digital domiciles). From that moment on, those who have done so will receive service of documents by PEC and will be able to send communications via PEC. This is entirely optional. Nobody is obliged to hold a PEC and register, and there will be no adverse consequences for those who do not.
Why is it ill-advised to register?
To send communications with formal legal effect, we can continue to use registered post. A PEC is superfluous. The registration of citizens on the INAD, on the other hand, serves only public administrations: for all documents that must currently be sent by registered post or served by bailiffs, they will be able to use the PEC system, which is extremely convenient for them. A PEC forces you to monitor your inbox constantly. Indeed, service is legally valid and deemed received once the PEC message is delivered to the recipient's inbox, even if they have not seen it or opened it.
There is, therefore, a very real risk of receiving communications that have the legal force of formal service without even realising it.
With PEC, we will receive tax assessments, fines, payment demands from collection agencies, and other notices by which public authorities make our lives impossible, with extreme speed and efficiency. One need only consider the fines issued to unvaccinated over-50s: the notification procedure has been dragging on for more than eight months and has still not been completed for everyone. Registering one's PEC with the INAD merely confers a major advantage upon the public apparatus whose purpose is to oppress us and extract as much money from us as possible.
The only categories obliged to hold a PEC are: - public administrations, - professionals, - companies, - VAT-registered entities (including sole traders and artisans).
For everyone else, a PEC is not compulsory.
As Proudhon wrote, to be governed is to be inspected, legislated, regulated, penned in, indoctrinated, controlled, censored, commanded, by beings who have neither the entitlement, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue. It means to be taxed, extorted, exploited, monopolised, shaken down, squeezed, robbed, and, at the slightest resistance, repressed, vilified, harassed, hounded, badgered, bludgeoned, disarmed, handcuffed, imprisoned, shot, judged, condemned, deported, sacrificed, betrayed, and to top it all off, mocked, ridiculed, insulted, all under the pretext of public utility and in the name of the general interest.
Let us try not to make life even easier for those who wish to govern us. Those who can should avoid getting a PEC. The government does not need us to do it any favours.
Avv. Alessandro Fusillo