Summary
Pursuant to Art. 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 (applicable ratione temporis to the case at stake for the proceedings has been instituted after 1 March 2002), Italian courts do not have jurisdiction over the proceedings for opposition against an order granted in summary proceedings for the payment of a sum of money (decreto ingiuntivo) upon application by an Italian company for the payment of the price of the goods sold to a German company, as according to the agreements occurred between the parties Germany is the place of delivery of the goods, to be interpreted as the place where the goods are actually made available to the buyer or his assistants, regardless of the notion descending from Art. 31 of the 1980 Vienna Convention on the international sale of goods or Art. 1510 of the Italian Civil Code. Accordingly, the fact that the goods were handed over to the carrier entrusted by the buyer in another State (Turkey in the case at issue) has no relevance at all with regard to jurisdiction.
Since Italian courts lack jurisdiction to hear such claim, there is no need to examine the issue of the validity and effectiveness of the choice-of-court clause in favour of the courts of Düsseldorf included in the written contract concluded by the parties.