Italian Supreme Court: in indirect continuity-based composition with creditors, the business lease must be functionally connected to the resolution of the crisis

By order No. 22931/2026, published on 8 July 2026, the Italian Supreme Court ruled on the conditions for indirect continuity-based composition with creditors founded on one or more business lease agreements and on the scope of the phrase “on any other title” (“a qualunque altro titolo”) provided for by Article 84, paragraph 2, of the CCII.

The Supreme Court clarified that the Code of Business Crisis and Insolvency does not permit indirect continuity founded on a lease agreement tout court, but requires a close functional connection between that instrument and the composition proposal. To that end, it is necessary that the agreement account for the proposal being prepared, or that there be a close connection, including in temporal terms, between the enjoyment agreement in favour of the third party and the submission of the proposal.

That connection must be based on criteria of actuality, concreteness and temporal coincidence, and cannot be established retrospectively by relying on agreements concluded many years before the filing of the application, lacking any reference to the business crisis, or unconnected to the obligations of the plan subsequently submitted.

The Court further held that continuity, entailing the pursuit of the pre-existing business activity, must, where partial, concern at least a significant portion of the original core of the business, specifying that the phrase “on any other title” covers scenarios additional to those typical of Article 84, paragraph 2, of the CCII, provided that they satisfy the same requirements of functional connection required by the first part of the provision.

To access the decision, click here.