Spain asks US Court to reject Petitioners’ supplemental authorities in determining its jurisdiction to enforce EUR 101 million ICSID arbitral award against it

The Kingdom of Spain has responded to Infrastructure Services Luxembourg S.A.R.L. (formerly Antin Infrastructure Services Luxembourg S.A.R.L) and Energia Termosolar B.V. (formerly Antin Energia Termosolar B.V.)’s notice to introduce supplemental authorities  in support of their petition to enforce a EUR 101 million ICSID arbitral award against it before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The supplemental authorities in question are the two recent decisions in NextEra Energy Global Holdings B.V. v. Kingdom of Spain, No. 1:19-cv-1618 (TSC), 2023 WL 2016932 (D.D.C. Feb. 15, 2023); and in 9Ren Holding S.À.R.L. v. Kingdom of Spain, No. 1:19-cv-1871 (TSC), 2023 WL 2016933 (D.D.C. Feb. 15, 2023).

In those decisions, which concerned identical arbitration enforcement actions against Spain, the Court rejected many of the same arguments Spain raised in its motion to dismiss in the case at hand.

iarbnews has written about those decisions in detail here:

US Court deals double blow to Spain’s cross-actions in Dutch and Luxembourg courts

On 15 February 2023, in two separate decisions, the District Court of the District of Columbia ordered Spain to withdraw its actions before the Dutch and Luxembourg courts, holding that they were “specifically intended to interfere with and terminate” the proceedings before the US courts.

iarbnewsDiego L. Alonso Massa

In doing so, Spain argues that those decisions are incorrect because in them the Court established jurisdiction on the basis of the arbitration exception to the FSIA.