Contact person domiciled in Italy, the duty to get right
Among Italian posting duties, the contact person domiciled in the country is the one foreign companies underestimate most, because it does not exist in many home systems. The law actually requires two, with different functions, and neither may sit abroad.
The two contact persons required by law
The first serves the document flow. The company must designate a contact person electively domiciled in Italy in charge of sending and receiving deeds and documents (Article 10(3)(b), Legislative Decree 136/2016). It is the company's Italian address, where enforcement serves requests, reports and orders.
The second serves industrial relations. For the whole posting the company needs a representative empowered to deal with the social partners (Article 10(4)), with a duty to make itself available on reasoned request, including with a view to second-level bargaining. Both functions can sit with one person, and in practice they do.
How long the appointment must last
The contact person for deeds operates during the posting and remains required up to two years after it ends, the same window in which the company must keep and produce the documentation file. Closing the site and dismantling the Italian address the next day is a mistake, investigations often arrive after the posting is over.
What happens without one, or with the wrong one
Breach of the designation duties carries an administrative fine of 2,400 to 7,200 euros. The bigger damage is not the fine. Deeds count as duly served at the elected domicile, and the deadlines to defend, to pay in reduced measure or to appeal run from there, even if head office never heard of them.
A token address, an unattended mailbox or the foreman's number do not satisfy the duty. What is needed is a person with a real domicile in Italy, able to receive, understand and route deeds in Italian within the useful time.
As for who can take the role, the law requires election of domicile in Italy and the mandate to send and receive deeds, not a particular qualification. In practice the role goes to a professional or a specialised firm, because the designation does not create an Italian seat of the company but does involve handling deeds with strict deadlines, in Italian, requiring immediate technical competence.
Frequently asked questions
Can the Italian client take the role?
The law does not forbid it, but the contact person receives inspection deeds that may touch the very relationship with that client. The role belongs with someone able to manage it promptly and without conflicts.
Must the appointment be repeated for each posting?
The contact person is named in each prior declaration and must cover the entire period, plus the later window in which the file must remain producible.
We act as contact person domiciled in Italy for foreign companies. Write to us for a free assessment of your position.
Informative content, updated 29 September 2026. Legal quotations are courtesy translations, the Italian text prevails. Every actual case requires a dedicated review.