ARBITRATION COURT OF ARBITRATION NEAR THE EUROPEAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE INDUSTRY AND FRANCHISE
Litigants in Romania, who are dependent on the intervention of state courts for the resolution of disputes, are often in a difficult situation. They are subject to an overloaded judicial system, and court decisions are not always easy to understand.
Franchisors, master franchisees, foreign and Romanian franchisees can appeal to the CECIF Court of Arbitration, where disputes are resolved in a fair, transparent and fast manner. Arbitration thus offers a reliable alternative to the common legal system, which can keep up with the ever-changing processes in the economic environment.
WHAT ADVANTAGES DOES THE COURT OF ARBITRATION NEAR THE EUROPEAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, INDUSTRY AND FRANCHISE OFFER?
Save time and avoid additional risks.
The duration of the trial is short compared to the one in the state courts, which can often extend over several years and can take place in several courts. An arbitration court can resolve a dispute in a court in just a few months.
You get a sentence with the same validity as a court sentence.
You can set the place of arbitration and the language used.
Participate in the composition of the arbitral tribunal.
The sentence is internationally recognized and enforceable (the New York Convention on the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards).
The impartiality and independence of the arbitrators who decide are ensured by the arbitration rules.
ARBITRATION CLAUSE RECOMMENDED BY CECIF TO BE INCLUDED IN FRANCHISE CONTRACTS
"Any dispute arising from or in connection with this contract, including regarding its validity, interpretation, execution or termination, will be resolved by commercial arbitration organized by the European Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Franchise in accordance with the Arbitration Procedure Rules of this Chamber. The arbitration decision is final and binding."
If products are supplied, works are performed or services are provided only on the basis of the fiscal invoice - that is, without concluding a contract - the payment due date and the arbitration clause will be specified on each fiscal invoice by mentioning the following text:
"The payment term is ____ days. Any dispute, not resolved amicably, is resolved through commercial arbitration organized by CECIF".
In the invoices listed on the computer, the text is redacted together with the completion of the invoice. In manually completed invoices, the text is entered by applying a rectangular stamp containing the text mentioned above.
Arbitration Court Regulation
List of Referees
Arbitration Fees
What does arbitration mean | it can be used in the franchise
According to art. 541 of the New Code of Civil Procedure, "an alternative jurisdiction having a private character".
Arbitration is an alternative way of settling patrimonial disputes, in which the parties, following a formal agreement, submit to the decision of a third party called an arbitrator, following a judicial procedure, resulting in a final and enforceable decision.
The new Code of Civil Procedure legislates the notion of institutionalized arbitration in TITLE VII of Book IV.
Art. 616 expressly provides: "institutionalized arbitration is that form of arbitral jurisdiction that is established and operates permanently alongside a domestic or international organization or institution or as an independent public interest non-governmental organization, under the law, based on a its own regulation applicable in the case of all disputes submitted to it for resolution according to an arbitration agreement. The activity of the institutionalized arbitration has no economic character and does not seek to obtain profit."
In the administration of this jurisdiction, the litigating parties and the competent arbitral tribunal may establish rules of procedure derogating from the common law, provided that the rules are not contrary to public order and the imperative provisions of the law.
What is the object of the arbitration?
According to art. 542 of the New Code of Civil Procedure, persons who have full legal capacity may agree to settle disputes between them through arbitration, except for those regarding:
- marital status;
- the capacity of people;
- the succession debate;
- family relationships;
- the rights over which the parties cannot decide.
The state and public authorities have the power to conclude arbitration agreements only if they are authorized by law or by international conventions to which Romania is a party.
Legal entities under public law that have as their object of activity and economic activities have the faculty to conclude arbitration agreements, unless the law or their act of establishment or organization provides otherwise.
What are the advantages of arbitration?
imports
the possibility of resolving conflicts through arbitration can be deduced especially from the multiple advantages that this institution, although private, presents compared to state justice.
1. Arbitration Flexibility. Arbitration offers a simplified conflict resolution procedure with a certain discretionary nature of the rules of arbitration procedure to follow. The dominant feature of the arbitration procedure is the contractual freedom of the parties, as they are free to choose or not this optional way of resolving disputes.
The parties can choose, by their agreement of will, the arbitrators who will settle the dispute between them. There is therefore the possibility of choosing, as arbitrators in civil disputes, some specialists in the field referred to the judgment, increasing the guarantee of the parties regarding the arbitration procedure.
In the state justice there is no such possibility, the files being distributed randomly. In most of the permanent arbitration institutions, it is provided in the rules of procedure that failure to meet the qualification conditions can constitute a reason for recusal of the arbitrators.
Arbitration offers an efficient private judgment, through arbitrators with rich professional experience and a recognized competence in the field of activity, which gives the institution of arbitration a special popularity in states with a developed market economy.
2. Operability. Any civil dispute, unless the parties agree otherwise, is resolved by the arbitration tribunal within 6 months at most from its establishment.
Arbitration presents the advantage of not being subject to excessive formalism, which, in most cases, suffocates the speedy and efficient conduct of a litigation by state justice. Under these conditions, subject to compliance with the imperative provisions of the law, public order or good morals, the parties may establish, by compromise or by a separate act, the rules of procedure for the arbitral tribunal to follow in resolving the dispute. In the absence of such rules, the arbitral tribunal will establish the procedure according to the regulation and its own arbitration rules established for the permanent arbitration institution that organized it.
3. Confidentiality in arbitration. The arbitration procedure ensures confidentiality throughout its development, being carried out in a closed environment and allows secrecy to be maintained from the registration of the arbitration request, the conduct of the procedure and the pronouncement of the arbitral award, which is not public.
The private nature of arbitration explains why arbitration activity is not subject to the principle of publicity.
This preserves the secrecy of the litigation in question and avoids publicity, an aspect not negligible in civil or professional disputes. Also, the arbitral decision is not pronounced in a public meeting, it being communicated only to the involved parties. In this way, the reputation of the parties participating in the arbitration procedure remains unaffected, regardless of the final solution pronounced by the arbitral tribunal.
In order to ensure a climate of confidentiality throughout the arbitration procedure, only the involved parties and their representatives will participate in it based on a power of attorney or special power of attorney.
4. The arbitration award is final and binding for the parties.
The arbitral award is final and binding, and can only be annulled by way of annulment action, but not for reasons related to the merits of the case, but only for the procedural exceptions provided for in art. 608 of the New Code of Civil Procedure.
The arbitral award constitutes an executory title and is enforced in the same way as a court decision. This provision was introduced by art. 615 of the New Code of Civil Procedure.
5. Costs in arbitration. Another advantage not to be overlooked is that of lower fees compared to court stamp duty. Arbitration fees differ from the value of the object of the arbitration request, but also depending on the domestic or international nature of the dispute. The amount of fees is also influenced by the number of arbitrators appointed by the parties, arbitration with a single arbitrator being the most advantageous from this point of view.
Starting from the fact that the parties agree to settle the disputes between them through arbitration, it can represent in the dynamics of social relations, the idea of partnership to allow the maintenance and continuation of contractual relations between the persons involved.
The idea of partnership in arbitration is supported, among other things, by the possibility that all arbitration expenses be paid according to the agreement of the parties. Only in the absence of an agreement are the rules for the settlement of disputes by the court applied, namely, the bearing of the arbitration costs to be borne by the party that lost the dispute.
Arbitration fees, if the dispute is adjudicated by
a sole arbitrator, are reduced by up to 50% compared to those paid in court for the same process.
We can conclude that arbitration presents a series of advantages compared to state justice: fast judgment, less formal, more flexible and cheaper, with the same finality – the arbitration award, which constitutes executory title. Under these conditions, we can say that arbitration has its own identity, making arbitral justice something other than state justice.
Arbitration does not represent a competitor of state justice, as it does not seek to limit its scope. The relations between the state justice and the arbitration are relations of completion, of completing the methods of conflict resolution.