Dispute Resolution | The Finnish Supreme Court clarifies commencement of deadline for challenging arbitral award
The present case concerned an arbitration seated in Finland and administered by the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (“SCC”). The parties were notified by email that a signed PDF of the award had been uploaded to the SCC’s document management system (the so-called SCC Platform) on 29 July 2022, while the signed paper copies arrived by courier on 1 August 2022. The Court emphasised that PDF copies are merely “duplicates” and do not satisfy the Finnish Arbitration Act’s requirement for properly signed copies under sections 36-37 of the Finnish Arbitration Act.
What would have been the outcome under the Norwegian Arbitration Act?
Section 44 of the Norwegian Arbitration Act (the “NAA”) includes a similar three-month deadline from “receipt” of the award. Section 3 of the NAA provides that if “… the parties agree to use electronic communication, any written communication is deemed to have been received when it has been sent to the correct electronic address and the addressee has access to it”. According to the preparatory works to section 3, the latter refers to when the electronic communication reaches the recipient’s server (see Ot.prp. nr. 27 (2003-2004) p. 88).
However, it is not clear whether a general agreement between the parties to use “electronic communication” as per section 3 of the NAA can be understood to also include the tribunal’s rendering of the award to the parties. This so particularly because the parties are normally dependent upon a signed paper copy to enforce the award. The uncertainty entails that also tribunals seated in Norway should clarify the question by asking the parties to confirm their acceptance to receive the award electronically either by email, by being notified that the award is uploaded to an electronic data room, or similar. The question should preferably be explicitly addressed and agreed in Procedural Order No. 1.