Region: European Union

A US-owned investment group has launched the first ever ICSID claim against the European Union, as well as separate claims against Germany and Denmark over an oil and gas enterprise.

25 October 2023

Belgium’s supreme court has affirmed a controversial ruling that ICC awards can be drafted by tribunal secretaries if their work is reviewed by the arbitrators.

24 May 2023

Spain’s quixotic battle with renewable energy creditors has taken a new turn as an award holder freezes state assets including the London premises of the country’s language and cultural centre, the Cervantes Institute.

06 April 2023

The Luxembourg Court of Cassation has quashed the enforcement of the Micula brothers’ ICSID award against Romania on the basis that the arbitration clause in the underlying investment treaty was nullified when the state joined the European Union.

18 July 2022

The tribunal hearing a Gazprom subsidiary’s US$8 billion Energy Charter Treaty claim against the European Union has agreed to suspend the case after the Russian state-owned company said it was unable to proceed due to sanctions.

04 April 2022

After announcing it is ceasing all work associated with the Russian state, Herbert Smith Freehills has withdrawn as counsel to a Gazprom subsidiary in an US$8 billion Energy Charter Treaty claim against the European Union over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

18 March 2022

Belgium’s Court of Cassation has been asked to review a court ruling that found the drafting of an ICC award by a secretary was not an improper delegation of the tribunal’s decision-making powers.

02 February 2022

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that the European Commission was competent to decide that Romania’s payment of a €178 million ICSID award in favour of the Micula brothers would violate state aid rules – also finding that Achmea is relevant to the case.

25 January 2022

The European Court of Justice has ruled that EU member states are prohibited from entering into ad hoc arbitration agreements identical to those in intra-EU BITs – suggesting that contract-based investor-state dispute settlement is unlikely to escape the impact of Achmea.

26 October 2021

The European Court of Justice has issued a landmark ruling that the investor-state arbitration clause in the Energy Charter Treaty does not cover intra-EU investment disputes.

02 September 2021