Arbitration - UMS Holding v Great Station (High Court)

Case Alert - [2017] EWHC 2473 (Comm)

Court rules on confidentiality of an arbitral award

The defendants' section 68 challenge to an arbitration award was (pursuant to the court's order) heard in public. The award was referred to during the hearing and in the judgment. The challenge failed and the claimants argued that the award was a public document and so they are free to make such use of it as they wish. The defendants countered that the claimants were bound by Article 30 of the LCIA Rules, which requires the parties "to keep confidential all awards in the arbitration, together with all materials in the arbitration created for the purpose of the arbitration and all other documents produced by another party in the proceedings not otherwise in the public domain, save to the extent that disclosure may be required ..by legal duty....or to enforce or challenge an award in legal proceedings...."