Et tu, Brute? Amsterdam District Court declines to hear the anti-suit injunction petition by Spain to prevent renewable investors from enforcing arbitral awards in the US. A stab in the back from another fellow EU jurisdiction (Kingdom of Spain v Blasket Renewable Investments LLC)

Article summary

Arbitration analysis: On 28 February 2020, Dutch investment companies AES Solar Energy Coöperatief UA (AES) and Ampere Equity Fund BV (AEF) obtained €26.5m arbitral award against the Kingdom of Spain before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Switzerland (the ‘Award’) currently pending enforcement before the District Court of Columbia in the US. In its strategy to avoid the enforcement, Spain requested a (sort-of) anti-suit injunction relief before the Dutch courts. To neutralise Spain's efforts, AES and AEF opposed the petition and assigned all their rights under the Award to a US entity Blasket Renewable Investments LLC (Blasket) to evade the jurisdictional reach of the Dutch courts. In its decision, the Amsterdam District Court Judge, Mr Justice HC Hoogeveen, in his judgment March 2023, considered the scope of its...