Article 614-bis: indirect coercion and its limits in enforcement

Article 614-bis of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure allows a court ordering performance of obligations other than the payment of sums of money to fix, on a party’s application and unless manifestly inequitable, the sum payable for each subsequent breach or non-compliance or for each delay, setting its starting point and, where appropriate, a period of duration. The amount is measured against the value of the dispute, the nature of the performance, the benefit the obligor derives from non-compliance and the quantified or foreseeable loss. The order is an enforceable title. Employment relationships, in both the private and the public sector, and the collaborations referred to in Article 409 are excluded.

What matters is the division of powers. The measure is not granted of the court’s own motion: it must be sought in the proceedings on the merits. Failing that, or where the title is other than an order for performance, the sum is determined by the enforcement judge on the application of the person entitled, after service of the formal demand. Since the order is an enforceable title, the right to proceed is contested by the objection under Article 615 and formal defects by the objection under Article 617. On the text preceding the amendments made by Legislative Decree 149/2022, the Italian Constitutional Court, by judgment no. 109 of 2026, held unfounded the questions concerning the absence of a power to cap the measure after the event.

Summary note by the CommercialistiAvvocati network, based on specialised legal and practice sources. The text does not reproduce original contributions and does not constitute professional advice.