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Article summary

Arbitration analysis: The Court of Appeal of Douai upholds a first instance ruling by the Commercial Court of Arras, declining jurisdiction in favour of arbitration, based on an arbitration clause. Even though the proceedings initiated by the claimant SCEA [D] et Fils (¡®SCEA [D]¡¯) raised a legal question as to the contractual existence of two prior unsigned agreements, upon which the respondent SAS Groupe Carr¨¦ (¡®Groupe Carr¨¦¡¯) had relied to offset alleged indemnities against a subsequent contractual invoice, the Court held that the dispute pertained to the latter signed contract, such that the matter of the contractual existence was merely an argument related to the latter contract, and not the subject of the dispute. As that contract contained an arbitration agreement, the court held that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the dispute. Written by Adi Trivedi,...