Link: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-10/cp210190en.pdf

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Court of Justice of the European Union

PRESS RELEASE No 190/21

Luxembourg, 26 October 2021

Judgment in Case C-109/20 PL Holdings

EU law prohibits the conclusion by a Member State of an arbitration agreement with identical content to an invalid arbitration clause in a bilateral investment treaty between Member States

The national court is therefore obliged to set aside an arbitral award made on the basis of such an arbitration agreement.

In 2013, the voting rights of PL Holdings, a company incorporated under Luxembourg law, attached to shares it owned in a Polish bank were suspended, and it was forced to sell those shares. PL Holdings disagreed with the decision requiring it to do so, which had been taken by the Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego (Polish Financial Supervision Authority), and decided to initiate arbitration proceedings against Poland. To that end, PL Holdings, relying on the bilateral investment treaty concluded in 1987 between Belgium and Luxembourg, on the one hand, and Poland, on the other. (...)