Court of Bari, judgment of 14 July 2026, No. 4283

An award in contractual arbitration (arbitrato irrituale) is void under art. 808-ter cod. proc. civ. where the arbitrator, in breach of the procedural rules laid down by the parties, applies procedural bars proper to ordinary judicial proceedings although required to proceed without formalities and to decide ex aequo et bono, thereby failing to examine the issue raised.
The defendant's acknowledgment of the debt, together with the abandonment of the counterclaim, does not cause the challenging parties' interest in a declaration of nullity of the award to lapse, since an interest subsists in the allocation of the costs of legal representation incurred in the arbitral proceedings and in the challenge proceedings.
The annulment of the award causes all obligations arising from the costs and fees assessed therein to fall away.