Summary

This is the hearing of an application by the claimant ("Integra") for orders restraining the defendant ("BASF") from continuing proceedings it commenced in Germany on 4 June 2025 ("German proceedings") relating to an arbitration between the parties, or the first partial final Award dated 28 May 2024 ("Award") made in the arbitration by Mr Mark Hamsher ("Arbitrator") and/or for an order requiring BASF to discontinue the German proceedings. The grounds on which the order is sought are either that the German proceedings have been brought in breach of the arbitration agreement between the parties and/or that the German proceedings are frivolous and/or vexatious, and that there is no countervailing reason for not granting the orders sought. BASF maintains that the order sought should be refused because it is doing no more than asserting the rights available to it as a matter of German procedural law for the purpose of vindicating its rights under the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958 ("NYC").