Dreptul european al concurenţei în dosare de arbitraj comercial internaţional ICC

One of the fundamental questions for the international commercial arbitration practice, at least in the most renowned European arbitration centres, is to what extent the international arbitrators have a duty to acknowledge an imperative, public law-based character of the European competition rules.
Certainly, the question may prompt a variety of approaches – theoretical, empirical, targeted or holistic, in a global or exclusively European context, from a local or transnational perspective – to mention just some of the alternatives for structuring the support analysis.
For the purpose of the study underpinning this paper we have employed empirical methods, at the same time narrowing our investigation to the arbitral practice under the auspices of the ICC. Despite this limitation, our research gathered comprehensive data, and we believe that the information compiled herein grants plausibility to the answer we put forward.
Our analysis of 60 arbitral cases reveals four discourses employed by arbitrators to justify their powers and obligations to apply public policy and imperative law, beyond parties’ will or bargain: (i) by reference to a certain municipal law, (ii) invoking the will of the parties to opt in for arbitration, (iii) relying on their duty to make best efforts in order to produce an enforceable award, and (iv) assuming that arbitrators act as guardians of competition policy objectives, as agents of states.
We find that none of the models stands on a convincing theoretical platform, as the arbitrators generally avoid engaging into fundamentals surrounding the imperative character of European competition law.

Una dintre întrebările fundamentale pentru practica arbitrajului comercial internaţional, cel puţin în centrele europene de arbitraj cele mai cunoscute, este în ce măsură sunt arbitrii internaţionali obligaţi să recunoască un caracter imperativ, de drept public, normelor de drept european al concurenţei.
De bună seamă, întrebarea poate fi abordată diferit – teoretic, empiric sau normativ, punctual sau holistic, în context global sau exclusiv european, din perspectivă locală sau transnaţională – pentru a menţiona doar câteva din posibilităţile de structurare a analizei suport.
Pentru scopurile studiului care stă la baza acestui material am folosit metode empirice, limitându-ne totodată investigaţia la practica arbitrală înregistrată sub autoritatea ICC. Chiar cu această limitare, cercetarea noastră a adunat date cuprinzătoare şi, suntem încredinţaţi, datele aici rezumate conferă plauzibilitate răspunsului pe care îl propunem.