Month: June 2013

Transparency in Investment Arbitration: A Growing Public Debate

Transparency in investment arbitration, thanks to Vattenfall suing Germany over the nuclear power exit, has become a topic in the mainstream business press. A recent piece in the business weekly Wirtschaftswoche talked about “back room justice” (“Justitia verzieht sich ins Hinterzimmer”), citing the “Toll Collect” arbitration as an example. “Toll Collect” is not technically a case of treaty arbitration, but a multi-billion dispute about a public-private partnership between the German government and Daimler, Telekom und Cofiroute.

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EU Commission Recommendation on Collective Redress Mechanism

The European Commission has come out today with its communication “Towards a European Horizontal Framework for Collective Redress” and its recommendation “on common principles for injunctive and compensatory collective redress mechanisms in the Member States concerning violations of rights granted under Union Law”. These horizontal instrumens are complemented by a draft directive regarding “damages under national law for infringements of the competition law provisions of the Member States and of the European Union”. Read More

Preventing Precedent: Legislative Action Expected

There is an increasing practice of corporate defendants, mainly from the fincancial services sector, to withdraw their appeal (Revision) before the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) once it becomes clear that the court will find against them to avoid a judgment that could serve as precedent against them.  As previously reported, this has led lawyers and consumer protection groups to advocate changes to the Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO). The Federal Supreme Court should be able to give judgment even if the underlying litigation has been terminated. Read More