Brief Considerations on the Criminal Aspects Connected to the Figure of the Prosumer, with Particular Regard to the Phenomenon of Energy Poverty and the Theft of Electricity

There is no shared definition of prosumer (in Italian, ‘prosumatore’) but the importance of a common operational definition has been underlined by the European Parliament. In general, prosumers are citizens who, individually or collectively, without being entrepreneurs, self-produce, self-consume and market goods and services, not without remarking, however, that such activities have not yet been unequivocally identified as rights. In connection with the figure of the prosumer, a plurality of criminal provisions are highlighted, such as those related to the spread of the Internet and, in particular, to the issue of controls on the Internet and the related liability of the provider-prosumer. But the viewpoint of investigation of particular importance in the criminal field, on which - above all - this contribution focuses, concerns the tools to combat the widespread phenomenon of theft of energy, of electricity in particular, which is part of the phenomenon of energy poverty.