Mealey's International Arbitration : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's International Arbitration

April 10, 2023
Judge Stays Arbitration Against Nonsignatories Pending Jurisdictional Review

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge on April 7 granted two British Virgin Islands (BVI) entities’ motion for a preliminary injunction staying the merits phase of a pending international arbitration brought against them by Google’s Asian division in a dispute over $120 million in unpaid advertising invoices after finding that “serious legal questions exist” regarding the arbitral panel’s jurisdiction.
March 30, 2023
Russian Award-Creditor Tells High Court RICO Claim For Unpaid $92M Award Is Proper

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Russian citizen urges the U.S. Supreme Court in a March 29 merits brief to reject arguments that it should “judicially legislate” a rule barring Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims by foreign plaintiffs, arguing that the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals correctly affirmed his RICO action against a Russian award-debtor and a Monaco bank for evading enforcement of a $92 million arbitral award.
March 30, 2023
Venezuela To Appeal Order Allowing Enforcement By Award-Creditors

WILMINGTON, Del. — The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) say in a joint status report filed in Delaware federal court that they will appeal a judge’s ruling permitting several judgment-creditors petitioning to enforce arbitral awards in their favor to attach the assets of PDVSA as Venezuela’s alter ego.
March 29, 2023
Egyptian Investor, Canada Both Fail To Partly Annul Award In Telecoms Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on March 28 published an ad hoc committee’s decision refusing to annul a split tribunal’s award dismissing an Egyptian investor’s claims accusing Canada of harming its investment in wireless telecommunications, rejecting both parties’ applications to partly annul the award.
March 28, 2023
U.S. Objects To Ukrainians’ BIT Claims For Property Frozen In Money Laundering Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on March 27 published the United States’ objections to an arbitration claim brought against it by three Ukrainian-owned entities that are seeking to challenge the civil seizure of their real estate investments for involvement in an alleged money laundering scheme.
March 28, 2023
Judge Orders Discovery For Enforcement Of Award Worth $58.6M Against Moldova

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge granted an award-creditor’s motion for an order enforcing a judgment worth more than $58.6 million against the Republic of Moldova for a confirmed arbitral award in an electricity contract dispute that was previously affirmed on appeal and ordered Moldova to response to the creditor’s discovery requests.
March 27, 2023
Judge Dismisses Zimbabwe From Mining Entities’ Bid To Confirm $50M Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge dismissed an action brought by two Mauritian mining investors to enforce an arbitral award worth more than $50 million against the Republic of Zimbabwe and its majority-state-owned mining company for lack of jurisdiction, but declined to dismiss claims against the office of Zimbabwe’s chief mining commissioner, which participated in the underlying arbitration.
March 27, 2023
Committee Denies Spain’s Attempt To Annul $29.3M Award To Solar Investors

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ad hoc committee rejected the Kingdom of Spain’s application to annul a split tribunal’s $29.3 million award against it for violating the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) by rescinding legislative incentives that harmed the investments of two European claimants and ordered Spain to pay the claimants more than 462,000 euros in attorney fees and costs.
March 24, 2023
Court Confirms $2M Costs Award Against Investor In Mexican Telecoms Dispute

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — An Iowa federal court on March 23 granted the United Mexican States’ petition to enforce a more than $2 million award issued by an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal against an American telecommunications investor for costs and fees after it rejected his North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) claims and denied his motion to strike Mexico’s reply brief for allegedly improperly raising new arguments.
March 24, 2023
Post-Settlement Dispute With Brazilian Oil Company Not Arbitrable, High Court Told

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Several former joint venture partners of a Brazilian oil company and its U.S. subsidiary in a March 23 brief urge the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a petition for a writ of certiorari challenging the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling that the parties’ global settlement agreement superseded a preexisting contract containing an arbitration agreement.
March 24, 2023
Potato Companies Seek To Enforce $4.3M Award For Indian Joint Venture Dispute

TRENTON, N.J. — The U.S. and India-based affiliates of a potato company filed a petition in New Jersey federal court to confirm a Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) arbitral award worth more than $4.3 million against an Indian company for a dispute over their potato production joint venture based in Gujarat, India.
March 23, 2023
Firm, Construction Companies Stipulate To Dismissal Of Arbitration Fees Dispute

BOSTON — An Austrian construction company, its U.S. subsidiary and a law firm on March 22 filed a stipulated dismissal with prejudice in Massachusetts federal court waiving all rights of appeal, ending litigation over the construction companies’ claims that the law firm charged them “unreasonable” attorney fees during arbitration of a construction dispute.
March 22, 2023
Coal Producer Must Arbitrate $115M Fire Dispute With Foreign Insurers, Judge Says

ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge on March 21 stayed a coal producer’s lawsuit against its international insurers for reducing the producer’s $115 million claim for mine fires by more than 90% and ordered the parties to arbitration after finding that a state law prohibiting mandatory arbitration clauses in insurance contracts does not reverse-preempt the New York Convention.
March 21, 2023
Investor In Natural Gas Facility, Pipeline Seeks $20B In NAFTA Claim Against Canada

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on March 20 published a request for arbitration filed by a U.S. investor who claims that the government of Canada breached the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and caused it more than $20 billion in damages by rejecting its proposal to construct a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Québec.
March 21, 2023
ICSID Excludes Norway’s Accounting Firm From Snow Crab Arbitration

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) recently published an arbitral tribunal’s decision excluding an accounting firm from continuing to advise the Kingdom of Norway as it opposes claims brought against it by Latvian investors in the snow crab industry after finding “a clear conflict of interest” as one of the firm’s partners previously worked on a preliminary damages report for a claimant.
March 21, 2023
India Panel Affirms Set-Aside Of Award Worth $1.3B In Satellite Row, Citing Fraud

NEW DELHI, India — An Indian appellate court affirmed the set-aside of an arbitral award worth more than $1.3 billion issued against an Indian state-owned company for terminating a telecommunications contract with an Indian entity formed by foreign investors after finding that the court properly relied on the Indian Supreme Court’s findings in a separate proceeding that the underlying agreement was obtained through fraud.
March 20, 2023
Arbitration Ordered In Power Plant Dispute Under Third-Party Beneficiary Doctrine

ATLANTA — Applying the third-party beneficiary doctrine, a Georgia federal judge on March 17 ordered arbitration of a dispute in which reinsurers and retrocessionaires as subrogees of the owner of an Algerian power plant seek no less than $28 million in damages against General Electric International Inc. (GE International) and related entities in relation to an October 2019 incident.
March 20, 2023
Korean Solar Panel Maker Accuses Calif. Companies Of UCL, Trade Secrets Violations

SAN FRANCISCO — A Korean solar panel manufacturer filed suit in California federal court accusing two California-based solar panel companies of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and defamation, arguing that the court has jurisdiction despite a pending arbitration between the parties in Singapore because it says the California companies “initiated the Arbitration . . . to achieve the conspiratorial goal” of misappropriating its trade secrets for advanced solar technology and replacing it with cheaper suppliers.
March 17, 2023
Judge Enforces More Than $412M Award Against Ecuador For Oil Contract Cancellation

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on March 16 confirmed an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award worth more than $412 million in favor of a French-owned, Bahamanian oil company against the Republic of Ecuador for the cancellation of oil contracts in the Amazon region and denied Ecuador’s request to set off the award by more than $70 million in alleged tax liability.
March 15, 2023
Peruvian City Says Tribunal Ignored Corruption In Toll Road Contract Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The government of the Peruvian city of Lima on March 14 filed a petition to vacate the second arbitral award issued against it for alleged misconduct by the arbitrators, writing that the tribunal refused to consider new evidence of corruption in the underlying dispute over a toll road contract but then issued an award against the city for failing to prove its corruption claims.
March 15, 2023
Investors Seek To Enforce $100M Award Against Peru For Devalued Land Bonds

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two U.S. investment entities on March 14 filed a petition in District of Columbia federal court to confirm an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral award in their favor worth more than $100 million against the Republic of Peru for arbitrarily devaluing the entities’ land bonds, which were first issued in 1969 as compensation for agrarian lands seized by the government.
March 15, 2023
Mexican, Bolivian Companies Settle Suit Over $37M Arbitral Award In Cement Dispute

DENVER — Two Mexican companies and a Bolivian company recently filed a joint stipulation of dismissal in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals stating that the parties have resolved their dispute over the confirmation of an arbitral award against the Mexican companies worth more than $37 million that was set aside by Bolivia’s highest court.
March 14, 2023
Tribunal Rejects Investors’ $198M Claim Against Nicaragua For Oil Block Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral tribunal rejected all claims brought by a group of U.S. investors against the Republic of Nicaragua for the alleged expropriation of their investment in an oil exploration venture that failed to find significant deposits of oil and ordered the claimants to pay Nicaragua $1.5 million to partially reimburse its attorney fees and costs.
March 09, 2023
Cosmetics Trade Secrets Dispute Must Be Arbitrated In Belgium, Judge Says

FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas federal judge on March 8 granted a motion by two U.S. subsidiaries of a Swiss pharmaceutical company to dismiss a trade secrets lawsuit brought against them by a U.K. company based on forum non conveniens, finding that a dispute over whether the subsidiaries improperly sought Food and Drug Administration approval for a cosmetic product must be resolved by arbitration in Switzerland.