Italian Law 413/97 provides that from 1 July 1998 the content of benzene and total aromatics, present in fuel gasolines, must be less than or equal to 1% and 40% respectively, by volume, entrusting Chemical Laboratories with the related controls. Chemical laboratories run about 2500 analyses per year, checking all the batches of fuel gasoline placed on the market, whether it is imported or coming from Italian refineries. Analytical results obtained proved compliance with the values indicated by Law 413. Since January 1999, upon request of the Guardia di Finanza and the Technical Office of Finance, such control has also been occasionally extended to fuel gasoline drawn from fuel stations and free depots. Italian Decree Law 66/2005 on health, safety and environmental protection provides the ecological specifications of unleaded petrol and diesel fuel intended for use in vehicles. Among environmentally interesting criteria, in unleaded petrol, sulphur content cannot exceed 10mg/kg; benzene content must be less than 1.0% (v/v) and total aromatics less than 35% (v/v). In the specific case of diesel fuel, the content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) must be less than 11% (m/m), while the sulphur content must be less than 10 mg/kg. The same Decree 66/2005 entrusts all checks on the conformity of fuels to chemical laboratories.

Italian Legislative Decree 152/2006, the so-called Consolidated Act on Environmental laws (ECA), in title III regulates, for the purposes of air pollution limits and prevention, the product characteristics of diesel and fuel oil used for heating and those of marine diesel oil (i.e. for maritime use). This decree entrusts the necessary product checks to chemical laboratories too.

In order to meet such regulatory requirements, chemical laboratories run over 35,000 analyses every year, checking all the batches of fuel and fuel placed on the market whether it is imported or coming from Italian oil refineries. In order to combat fraud, in close collaboration with the Guardia di Finanza, numerous checks on fuels are performed also from fuel stations and free depots.