News & Views

Hannes Snellman as Counsel in Two Precedential Cases Determining the Invalidity of Intra-EU Arbitral Awards in Sweden

14 December 2022

Hannes Snellman acted as counsel in two precedential cases determining the invalidity of intra-EU arbitral awards in Sweden. Both cases concerned the application of EU law principles expressed in the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Achmea judgment and the case law following the judgment.

Hannes Snellman successfully represented the Republic of Poland in the Swedish Supreme Court, where the arbitral awards were declared invalid on the basis of Section 33(2) of the Swedish Arbitration Act, i.e. for being incompatible with the basic principles of the Swedish legal system. The Swedish Supreme Court’s judgment followed the ECJ’s preliminary ruling in the case C-109/20 PL Holdings referred to the ECJ by the Swedish Supreme Court. The team before the Swedish Supreme Court and the ECJ consisted of Partner Anna-Maria Tamminen as well as other lawyers previously with Hannes Snellman. 

We have been very privileged to work on this case for the past five years, before the Svea Court of Appeal, Swedish Supreme Court and European Court of Justice. Although we expected this to be the outcome in the light of the Achmea judgment, it took a lot of work to get here.” says Anna-Maria Tamminen, Partner at Hannes Snellman.

We also successfully represented the Kingdom of Spain in the Svea Court of Appeal regarding an application to invalidate or set aside an intra-EU arbitral award under the Energy Charter Treaty. The Svea Court of Appeal found on the basis of Section 33(1) of the Swedish Arbitration Act that the award concerned questions which were not arbitrable and therefore declared the award invalid. The team consisted of Partners Pontus Ewerlöf and Martin Rifall as well as several members of the DR team.  

"We are very honoured to have been entrusted to act as advisors to the Kingdom of Spain in this groundbreaking judgment which is also the first of its kind in Europe," says Pontus Ewerlöf, Partner at Hannes Snellman.

More News