Court of Reggio Calabria, judgment of 29 July 2026, No. 1329

An agreement by which the parties entrust the settlement of possible disputes to third parties qualifies as arbitration, whether arbitration (arbitrato rituale) or contractual arbitration (arbitrato irrituale), where the third parties are entrusted with resolving strictly legal questions, such as those concerning the validity and effectiveness of the insurance cover or, more generally, the interpretation of the contract; there is instead a contractual expert determination (perizia contrattuale) where the parties intended to entrust third parties with settling questions of fact, the ascertainment of which requires specific technical expertise.
The dividing line with arbitration lies in the waiver of recourse to the ordinary courts: where the parties intended such a waiver, the clause is necessarily an arbitration clause and the contractual expert determination constitutes arbitration, whether free arbitration (arbitrato libero) or arbitration (arbitrato rituale); in the absence of such waiver, the contractual expert determination is not arbitration but constitutes an atypical contractual arrangement by which the parties undertake to abide by the binding determination of the third party.
The outcome of a contractual expert determination is not an arbitral award but a contractual determination binding as between the parties.