PEC is an e-mail with full legal value, like a registered letter with return receipt. When a PEC is sent, the provider that manages the e-mail will send you a receipt, with legal value, which will refer to the successful (or failed) transmission of the message with the exact date and time of delivery. If you lose this receipt, you can request it again from the provider within a period of 30 months, according to the current regulations.
A certified e-mail must be associated with a certified domain, according to the rules set by Presidential Decree 68/2005 and the Digital Administration Code which establish its legal validity, methods and rules of use.
The PEC service can only be provided by providers accredited to the CNIPA and provides numerous advantages:
- All messages are always accessible from any user's PC or mobile phone
- Delivery is guaranteed, and if this does not happen, the sender is notified
- The delivery receipt has legal value
- It is always possible to trace the sender of the e-mail, and, therefore, the owner of the domain who is responsible for the e-mail itself
- The attachments are certified
- Emails are available for 30 months after the date they were sent
- Being managed by accredited providers, certified emails enjoy higher security criteria
- The user has a significant economic advantage: he can send unlimited e-mails at significantly lower costs than paper mail.
The PEC is a tool dedicated to certain categories of subjects and legal persons such as:
- Newly established companies
- Subjects who must send documents to PAs (Public Administrations)
- Directors who want to send notices of councils, assemblies, etc.
- Professionals enrolled in various professional registers or lists
- Companies that need to send contracts, orders or invoices to their customers
- Subjects who must send administrative circulars via email
- Companies that intend to participate in tenders and wish to send their application
- Companies that need to send documentation to their employees
- Sole proprietorships.
Before using a PEC it is good, however, to take into account the following information:
- The PEC has not yet international value: it is valid only in Italy
- Currently the PEC is not mandatory for everyone, but only for the categories of activities or individuals described previously
- The date of notification of receipt of the email coincides with the receipt itself. This entails for the user a constant check of his own certified mailbox.