Anti-Suit Relief In Arbitration: A Small Step In The Right Direction

In December 2014, an opinion issued by Attorney General Wathelet in Gazprom (C- 536/13) appeared to pave the way for the return of the anti-suit injunction in European arbitration (click here for our briefing note on this). It also provided the Court of Justice of the European Union (the "CJEU") with an opportunity to provide welcome clarification on the arbitration exception in the Recast Brussels Regulation.

However, at the end of last week, the CJEU published an anti-climactic judgment in which it confirmed that parties shall be bound by anti-suit injunctions issued by tribunals with jurisdiction over the disputing parties, but stopped short of clarifying whether the courts of Member States would similarly be bound by an anti-suit injunction issued in support of arbitration by the courts of another Member State.