Peters & Peters continue to act for the MOL Group, the Hungarian national energy company and one of the largest companies in Central and Eastern Europe, in its long running dispute with the Croatian Government over INA, Croatia’s national oil company.

Croatia initiated arbitration proceedings in 2014 seeking the annulment of agreements which transferred management rights of INA to MOL, claiming that they were procured by MOL’s bribery of Dr Ivo Sanader, a former Croatian Prime Minister. Peters & Peters were instructed by MOL to challenge Croatia’s allegation of bribery and successfully demonstrated to the Tribunal that the evidence was insufficient and did not stand up to scrutiny. In December 2016 the arbitral tribunal ruled in MOL’s favour and dismissed the claim in its entirety.

In early 2017 Croatia applied to the Swiss Supreme Court seeking the annulment of the arbitral award, citing alleged failures by the Tribunal to consider key evidence and submissions and an asserted conflict of interest relating to Croatia’s own appointed arbitrator. The Swiss court has now rejected Croatia’s application and upheld the award. Read here.

Michael O’Kane, Senior Partner and Head of Business Crime, and Peter FitzGerald, Associate, act for MOL.