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Consolidation of Arbitrations in ICC Arbitration
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Prof. Dr. H. Ercument Erdem
With respect to International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”) arbi-
tration, consolidation is a procedural mechanism used when two or
more pending arbitrations are merged into a single arbitration. Due to
the current practice in international commercial transactions that
require technical, commercial and financial specialization, the number
of multi-party disputes has a tendency to increase. Consolidation may
have advantages with regard to procedural efficacy, and may provide
procedural economy and cost efficiency. It also lowers the risk of
inconsistent decisions. Additionally, the fact-finding phase is facilitat-
ed and may be finalized more efficiently, with a more comprehensive
presentation of legal and factual positions.
In General
The consolidation of arbitrations is set forth under Art. 10 of the
ICC Arbitration Rules (“the Rules”). Pursuant to the relevant article,
the International Court of Arbitration (“the Court”) may, at the request
of one of the parties, consolidate two or more arbitrations that are
pending under the Rules into a single arbitration. The Court may
decide on the consolidation under the following scenarios, which shall
be further examined in this article:
- Where the parties have agreed to consolidation, or
- Where all of the claims in the arbitrations are made under the
same arbitration agreement, or
- Where the claims in the arbitrations are made under more than
one arbitration agreement, the arbitrations are between the same
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Article of October 2014