The level of scrutiny of awards applied by German courts: A reality check

German courts have traditionally intervened only in exceptional cases and honoured the fundamental principle that an award must not be reviewed on the merits. Recent court decisions, however, have sparked debate over whether German courts have started to exercise their limited powers to consider the substance of arbitral awards more extensively.

CMS arbitration experts have reviewed more than 170 decisions from set-aside and enforcement proceedings in Germany over the past nine years to assess when German courts will intervene, the threshold for setting aside awards, and how often such applications succeed. In the fourth article of the CMS Arbitration Atlas series, we unpack what the data really shows and walk through the few exceptional cases where courts intervened — from competition law to EU sanctions and serious breaches of the right to be heard.

Please click the link to read the full article, the fourth in the CMS Arbitration Atlas series:

Germany: The level of scrutiny of awards applied by German courts - a reality check