France / 09 April 2008 / France, Cour d'appel de Toulouse / Société Gefu Küchenboss GmbH & Co. KG and Société Gefu Geschäfts-und Verwaltungs GmbH v. Société Corema / 07/04323
| Country | France |
| Court | France, Cour d'appel de Toulouse (Court of Appeal of Toulouse) |
| Date | 09 April 2008 |
| Parties | Société Gefu Küchenboss GmbH & Co. KG and Société Gefu Geschäfts-und Verwaltungs GmbH v. Société Corema |
| Case number | 07/04323 |
| Applicable NYC Provisions | II |
| Source |
Original decision obtained from the registry of the Cour d’appel de Toulouse |
| Summary | A commercial agency agreement was entered into between a German company (Gefu Küchenboss) and a French company (Coréma) on 9 April 1993, which contained an arbitration clause. The German company terminated the agreement on 8 April 2005, following which the French Company nominated its counsel as its arbitrator pursuant to the arbitration agreement. Given that the parties failed to reach an agreement as to the constitution of the arbitral tribunal, the French company filed a law suit before the Tribunal de commerce de Toulouse (Commercial Court of Toulouse), which retained jurisdiction to rule upon the dispute. Appealing this decision, the German company argued that the Tribunal de commerce de Toulouse lacked jurisdiction and violated the Competence-Competence principle, Article 1493 of the Code of Civil Procedure and Article II NYC, having failed to determine that the arbitration agreement was manifestly void or manifestly not applicable. The Cour d'appel de Toulouse (Toulouse Court of Appeal) noted that the arbitration agreement provided that "Any dispute will be submitted to an arbitrator chosen by both parties within 3 months of the notification of the dispute by one of the parties. If the arbitration cannot proceed, the Tribunal de Commerce will have jurisdiction". In the absence of agreement between the parties regarding the constitution of the arbitral tribunal within the three-month period provided by the arbitration agreement, it confirmed that the Tribunal de Commerce de Toulouse had sole jurisdiction to rule upon the dispute. |
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Attachment (1)
 Original Language Adobe Acrobat PDF |
