How easy is it to enforce judgments in Italy?

Foreign judgments in commercial matters are generally enforceable in Italy, but the time and efforts required for the enforcement depend on where the judgment comes from. Enforcing judgments rendered in EU Member States is usually a straightforward task, since no special recognition procedures or declarations of enforceability are required (articles 36 and 39 of the EU Regulation 1215/2012).

Unless international conventions apply, judgments rendered in other countries are enforceable if they meet the requirements of the Italian statute on private international law.

The first step required to enforce a non-EU decision in Italy is to obtain an enforcement decree from the competent Court of Appeal, which will take at least six months. Then, if the other party opposes the decision, the proceedings may continue for other two or three years before the Court of Appeal, and for a further year if the matter is submitted to the Court of Cassation.

The Italian judicial system suffers from excessive delays due to the complexity and high number of laws and the huge backlog of cases accumulated over the years by courts at all levels.

Tactics aimed at delaying the proceedings are widely employed and hard to discourage; consequently, unless you are the debtor, it is often advisable to reach an out-of-court settlement agreement and drop any lawsuit.

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