Who Publishes is Accountable

The Criminal dimension exists

It is an aspect that many prefer to ignore in the belief that it concerns only extreme cases. It does not.

Article 612-quater of the Italian Criminal Code, introduced with recent amendments, punishes anyone who transfers, publishes or disseminates images, video or voices falsified or altered by AI systems, capable of inducing deception as to their genuineness and liable to cause unjust harm. The person punished is not whoever generated the content — it is whoever disseminates it without the consent of the person concerned.

To this will be added, through implementing decrees currently being finalised, new criminal offences related to the failure to adopt security measures on high-risk AI systems, with extension of corporate liability under the model of Legislative Decree 231/2001.

For a company using visual content in significant volumes — in fashion, food, cosmetics, real estate — the assessment of criminal risk is no longer an academic hypothesis.

A Misleading product is an Unfair commercial practice

There is an area of risk that specifically concerns sectors where the product image plays a decisive role in the purchasing decision.

An AI-generated image depicting a food product with visual characteristics different from reality, a cosmetic with visually amplified effects, a garment with an idealised fit, or a property with non-existent finishes may constitute an unfair commercial practice under consumer protection law. The consequences include proceedings by competition authorities and interventions by advertising self-regulatory bodies.

Traditional commercial photography has always operated with a degree of idealisation — studied lighting, post-production, styling. The difference is that AI can generate product representations bearing no relation to the physical reality of the object, and do so in a visually credible manner. The boundary between enhancement and deception becomes thinner, and the responsibility for maintaining it falls on the company that publishes.

Photography loses protection in transit between platforms

Italian copyright law provides that simple photographs — those lacking autonomous creative character, such as typical e-commerce product shots — are protected by related rights only if they carry certain information: the name of the photographer or commissioner, the date of production, and in the case of photographed artworks, the name of the artist.

In practice, this information is embedded in the file’s metadata. And metadata is systematically stripped in transit between websites, social media and distribution platforms. The result is that an image correctly attributed at origin circulates without any identification after its first redistribution, and the related rights become effectively unenforceable.

For companies investing in product photography, this is a concrete problem that predates AI and that AI amplifies: unprotected images can be extracted, used as training data and reproduced — wholly or in part — without the rights holder having effective means of opposition.

Insurance Policies may not Cover the risk

The final aspect concerns an assumption that many companies take for granted: insurance coverage.

Professional liability policies and product damage coverage were drafted, in most cases, before the use of AI-generated content became widespread practice. Some contractual wordings may exclude — explicitly or through interpretation — damages arising from the use of artificial intelligence tools in content production.

Similarly, the indemnification guarantees offered by AI providers have defined perimeters: they cover specific plans, include exclusions, and in no case constitute full coverage equivalent to a traditional insurance policy. Relying exclusively on the provider’s guarantee without verifying one’s own insurance coverage is a risk worth assessing before, not after.

The Italian and European regulatory framework on artificial intelligence is not yet complete — implementing decrees, case law and market practice will define many of the still-open contours in the coming months. But the operational deadlines are already set, responsibilities are already assigned, and the consequences for non-compliance are already established. For companies using visual content as part of their communication, the moment to review processes, contracts and coverage is not tomorrow.