On 22 January 2017, Guantao Law Firm (“Guantao”) obtained the arbitral award in its favor rendered by China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (“CIETAC”) regarding an international trade contract dispute in which Guantao represents a Hong Kong company to apply for arbitration against a Lithuanian company. This is another victory after Guantao won the Lithuanian parallel arbitration case over the same dispute in November 2016.

This dispute arises from the performance of international sales of block timbers between the two parties which are both offshore companies, among which Guantao represents the claimant as the buyer, a German-funded company registered in Hong Kong while the Lithuanian lawyers represent the respondent as the seller, a company registered in the Republic of Lithuania. The issues at dispute of this case are: whether a third-party offender hacked into the email account of the respondent which results in defaults, which party shall bear the liability for breach of contract as well as how to bear it. English is decided as the language of the arbitration by CIETAC tribunal, and therefore all the legal documents are exchanged and the hearing is conducted in English.

The CIETAC tribunal finally grants nearly all the requests of the claimant represented by Guantao and rules that the counterparty shall refund payment for goods in full requested by the claimant, compensate for the loss of profits and the expense of attorney’s fees and bear all the arbitration fees. The main arguments Guantao lawyers have made, such as the governing law, validity of the contracts, a third-party’s fault and apparent agency, have been all accepted by the tribunal, who particularly takes full account of and cites in its award the similar case precedents provided by Guantao lawyers through their massive legal research.

The parallel arbitration of this case was submitted to Lithuanian Court of Arbitration (“LCA”) by the Lithuanian company based on the same cause of action during arbitral proceedings of CIETAC. Guantao lawyers raised objections to the jurisdiction of the LCA tribunal and validity of the relevant part of the arbitration clause after careful study of the relevant Lithuanian law and arbitration rules of LCA as well as seeking advice from Lithuanian lawyers, and therefore successfully persuaded the LCA tribunal to render an award in November 2016 to leave the claim unexamined. This victory cracked the intention of the counterparty to prevent the CIETAC procedure from proceeding smoothly and paved the way for the smooth enforcement of the CIETAC award we gained.

The Guantao team which provided services to these two parallel arbitration cases in and outside China was led by Guantao partner Ms. Xu Ling and supported by partner Mr. Sun Shaosong. Other team members included Mr. Wu Wenhao, Ms. Yu Jiazi, Ms. Xi Chenlin, Ms. Wang Qiao, Ms. Zhou Li and Ms. Nancy Yang (Hong Kong office). Guantao lawyers have fully and maximally maintained the interests of its client and are highly praised by the client for the professionalism, diligent and meticulous work style and accurate language competence.