Keeping Hush — When Oversharing Leads To Losing Confidentiality

An advantage of arbitral proceedings over court proceedings is that arbitration is private and only involves the named parties. This is reflected in sections 41A and 41B of the Arbitration Act 2005.

In brief, section 41A prohibits the disclosure of the arbitral proceedings or of the arbitral award, except in limited situations. Section 41B further provides that all court proceedings under the Arbitration Act 2005 are not to be heard in open court, unless one party applies otherwise, or the court is of the view that the proceedings should be heard in open court. These provisions are also similarly reflected in Singapore under the International Arbitration Act 1994.

However, recently an arbitration between the Republic of India (“India”) and Deutsche Telekom AG (“Deutsche Telekom”) lost its confidentiality when the Singapore Court of Appeal dismissed India's application to keep confidential the court proceedings filed to enforce an arbitration award.