Our client is an international high-tech developer who distributes its product internationally. Upon termination of an international distribution agreement in Europe, the distributor threatened to sue under the ECU Commercial Agent Regulations, which require a mandatory payment to a commercial agent on the termination of an agency agreement. To avoid having to defend a lawsuit abroad, our firm launched arbitration proceedings in Canada. The arbitration conducted in Toronto before a three-person tribunal of world-class arbitrators was asked to exclude the distributor’s $3,000,000 agency claim from the arbitration so that it could be litigated in the ECU. Our firm successfully resisted the opposing party’s efforts to exclude the claim. Senior Partner Igor Ellyn, QC and Associate Evelyn Perez asked the arbitral tribunal to determine whether the mandatory ECU agency regulations applied to the determination of rights of the parties. Following extensive argument based on research conducted by our firm, the Tribunal ruled that only Ontario law applied and dismissed the opposing party’s $3,000,000 compensation claim. A 7-day hearing ensued about other contractual disputes involving $850,000, which resulted in an award which was a 95% success for our client.
