Lance Armstrong’s Perjured Doping Testimony Earns Him A $10 Million Sanction In Arbitration

Recently, Lance Armstrong attracted national attention when an arbitration panel in Texas ordered him to pay $10 million in sanctions to a promotions company for lying about his use of performance-enhancing drugs to win the 2004 Tour de France. Sanctions, especially of this type and magnitude, are not widely recognized in arbitration, which shows that arbitration, like litigation, is not always as predictable as the researching eye would hope.

Arbitration offers a number of benefits to clients. Well-drafted arbitration clauses can reduce risk and expense, offer assurance as to forum, guarantee some assurance of an arbitrator who is familiar with the subject of the dispute, and generally make business dispute resolution more predictable. With that in mind, Armstrong's most recent arbitration experience provides a warning against some of the risks associated with arbitration that are not readily apparent.