SOMMARIO: 1. Il terziario esoterico - 2. Il divieto di ciarlataneria - 3. Il terziario esoterico e la tutela del contraente/consumatore - 4. La disciplina del terziario esoterico tra pluralismo culturale e tutela del consumatore.

The Law Regulating Esoteric Services

ABSTRACT: The essay focuses on the law regulating esoteric services (fortune telling, selling of talismans, etc.). While in several legal systems the professional practice of magic was once clearly forbidden, nowadays its status is uncertain: such practices are seen as not necessarily illicit but highly suspicious from the point of view of consumer law. The essay explores the inherent tension between repression of fraud and unfair commercial practices and freedom of belief, particularly focusing on Italian case law and administrative practice.