The rules governing the challenge of arbitral awards under art. 808-ter of the Code of Civil Procedure do not apply to awards issued pursuant to arbitration agreements entered into prior to the entry into force of Legislative Decree 2 February 2006 n. 40, pursuant to art. 27 para. 3 of the same decree.
A contractual arbitration (arbitrato irrituale) award cannot be challenged for errors in law or for violation of legal rules, but exclusively for defects that affect the expression of contractual intent, such as essential error, duress, fraud or incapacity of the parties.
A contractual arbitration (arbitrato irrituale) award may be challenged for essential error only when the formation of the arbitrators’ will has been affected by an altered perception or false representation of reality and the factual elements submitted to their examination, and not when the deviation relates to the evaluation of a reality whose elements have been accurately perceived.