Summary
Pursuant to Article 5(1)(b) second indent of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001, Italian courts do not have jurisdiction over a negative declaratory action lodged by an Italian principal company against a French agent company for the credit claimed by the latter as commissions, severance pay and contractual damages, given that the place of performance of the main obligation was located in France. The claimant may be sentenced pursuant to Article 96 last paragraph of the Code of Civil Procedure when he lodged a claim with (at least) gross negligence at the deliberate aim of precluding to the defendant the possibility of filing his claim before his “natural judge” (in the case at issue, the French judge), abusing of his right to legal protection and abusing of his right to legal proceedings, which are protected by the Constitution as inalienable rights of an individual, and harming his counterparty and the system of fair trial provided at Article 111 of the Constitution.