DECISION BY THE PARIS COURT OF APPEAL RENDERED ON 18 NOVEMBER 2004 IN CASE NO. 2002/60932

 

Subject Matter: Whether an arbitral award should be set aside on the ground that the award violated public policy consisting of EC Competition Law (Art 81 of the EC Treaty) which should have been applied by the arbitral tribunal ex officio.

 

Finding: The court accepted that Art. 81 of the EC Treaty is part of French public policy. However, in the absence of fraud or an obvious violation of public policy, a court dealing with an application for setting aside may not conduct a full scale investigation, because an alleged violation of a mandatory rule in the international sense does not justify the violation of the fundamental procedural French rule that prohibits a full review of the arbitration proceedings. The court rejected the application for annulment.

 

Parties:

Claimant: S.A. Thalès Air Defence

Respondents: G.I.E. Euromissile et al.

 

Place of Court Proceedings: Paris, France

 

Arbitration Rules: ICC Arbitration Rules

 

Applicable Law: Articles 1502(5) and 1504 of the French Civil Procedural Code