Bottom line up front: When a business client in Italy leaves your invoice unpaid, the EU Late Payment Directive (2011/7/EU), as transposed into national law, generally lets you claim the principal, statutory late-payment interest, and a fixed recovery sum (an EU minimum of €40). For a debtor in your OWN country you use the national order-for-payment route (decreto ingiuntivo); for a debtor in ANOTHER EU country you can escalate cross-border with the European Payment Order (Form A). This is general information, not legal advice.

The situation: an overdue B2B invoice in Italy

You delivered the work, sent a correct invoice, and the due date has passed. For freelancers and small agencies, an unpaid B2B invoice is a direct strain on cash flow. A client in another EU country adds distance and an unfamiliar legal system on top.

The legal position, however, is clearer than many realise. EU rules provide the framework, and the first formal documents are ones you can prepare yourself. One Italian particularity is worth knowing early: claims are channelled by value — smaller ones to the giudice di pace (justice of the peace), larger ones to the ordinary civil courts — a split detailed below.

Your position under Directive 2011/7/EU

For commercial transactions between businesses (B2B) or between businesses and public authorities (B2G), the Directive establishes that statutory interest and a fixed recovery sum of at least €40 generally apply once payment becomes late, as transposed into national law. In Italy, the national statute is Legislative Decree (D.Lgs.) 231/2002, updated by D.Lgs. 192/2012. Interest runs automatically, without a separate reminder, from the day after the payment deadline — or, where no payment term was agreed, 30 days after the debtor receives the invoice (art. 4 D.Lgs. 231/2002).

Statutory interest is simple daily interest at the European Central Bank's main refinancing (reference) rate plus 8 percentage points (artt. 2 and 5 D.Lgs. 231/2002). The reference rate is fixed per semester: the rate in force on 1 January governs the first half-year, the rate in force on 1 July the second. The Ministry of Economy and Finance publishes it in the Gazzetta Ufficiale (the Official Gazette) each semester (art. 5).

On top of interest, you are entitled to €40 as compensation for recovery costs, due without any formal notice of default (art. 6 D.Lgs. 231/2002) — the EU minimum, which Italian law provides as a fixed sum. Documented recovery costs above it can additionally be claimed on proof. These are baseline entitlements, not absolute legal guarantees; how they apply to a specific claim depends on its circumstances.

Domestic vs. cross-border: which route applies

The procedure depends on where your debtor is located:

• Same country (Italy): use the decreto ingiuntivo (order-for-payment procedure) under artt. 633 ss. of the codice di procedura civile, the Italian code of civil procedure. On your application, backed by written proof of a liquid (definite) sum of money owed, the competent judge issues an injunction to pay without a full trial — a streamlined route well suited to undisputed debts.
• Different EU country (cross-border): use the European Payment Order (Form A), a standardised procedure under Regulation (EC) No 1896/2006 for cross-border civil and commercial claims. It is for cross-border cases only and does not apply to Denmark. Which country's courts take the application is set by EU jurisdiction rules — as a general rule the courts of the debtor's member state.

When the Italian courts are competent, the forum depends on claim value and subject-matter: the giudice di pace for claims up to €10,000 (€25,000 for vehicle/boat damage claims), the ordinary civil court or the court of appeal in all other cases. For a typical B2B invoice, that means the giudice di pace up to €10,000 and the ordinary civil courts above it. Applications to the Italian courts are in Italian.

In either scenario, starting with a courtesy payment reminder and, if necessary, a formal late-payment demand can often resolve the matter without court involvement. MoraDirect helps you generate both.

The manual way (and why it's tedious)

Doing this manually means several error-prone steps:

1. Drafting a correctly formatted demand letter that includes all required elements.
2. Calculating the exact statutory interest since the due date — the correct semester reference rate plus the margin, computed daily on the outstanding amount; a wrong semester or rate produces an incorrect claim.
3. For cross-border cases, completing the official European Payment Order Form A exactly as published (Art. 7(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1896/2006).
4. Verifying the formatting — incorrect or incomplete applications trigger requests for correction and cost weeks.

After service of a European Payment Order, the debtor has 30 days to lodge a statement of opposition (Art. 16). A timely opposition does not end the claim: the proceedings continue before the competent courts of the member state of origin — under the European Small Claims Procedure where applicable, or otherwise an appropriate national civil procedure — unless you have explicitly requested that they end in that event (Art. 17(1)). Precise, well-documented paperwork therefore matters from the start.

Doing it yourself vs. MoraDirect

Generate your documents

Don't want to calculate interest and format court forms by hand? MoraDirect builds your reminder, late-payment demand, and (for cross-border cases) the official European Payment Order Form A from one set of details — no account, nothing stored after your download. Create your documents

General information, not legal advice. MoraDirect is a document-formatting tool.