Online arbitration proceedings

The Court of Arbitration at the Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic and the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic (hereafter simply referred to as the “Court of Arbitration”) is a permanent court of arbitration which is active at the Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic as an independent body for the provision of rulings in property disputes reached by independent arbiters according to the regulations pertaining to arbitration proceedings (Act no. 216/1994 Coll. governing arbitration proceedings and the execution of arbitration rulings).

On 1.6.2004, the Court of Arbitration adopted a Special Amendment to the Arbitration Regulations for online arbitration proceedings. Upon the basis of the online regulations, it became possible to realise proceedings and to rule on disputes from this country via the internet, provided the parties so agree and submit to the online regulations. The online regulations enable all of the parties’ submissions to be realised in electronic form, for the proceedings to be realised in electronic form and for the arbitration ruling to be issued in an electronic form via the internet.

According to the rules concerning the costs of the online arbitration proceedings dating from 1.6.2004, the fee for the realisation of the online arbitration proceedings amounts to 3% of the value of the subject of the dispute, but at least 3,000 CZK and at most 1,000,000 CZK.

Online arbitration proceedings: the recommended clause

The arbitration clause recommended by the court of arbitration for online proceedings has the following wording:

“All of the disputes arising from this contract and in association with it will be decided upon with final validity at the Court of Arbitration at the Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic and the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic in Prague. The decision will be reached by a single arbiter designated by the Chairman of the Court of Arbitration at the Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic and the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic according to the online regulations.

The parties have designated the following email addresses for the purposes of any online proceedings:

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This arbitration agreement forms an integral part of contract no. ............. dated ............. concluded between the contractual parties.

In Prague on .................................

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the signature of the contract party

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the signature of the contract party"

The online arbitration proceedings can be understood as being a new alternative in relation to the classic method of holding arbitration proceedings, which especially depends on the current developments in the use of modern technology and which will doubtless contribute to further increases in the interest of the parties in eliminating the jurisdiction of the general courts in favour of arbitration proceedings.

Mgr. Jan Urbanec

Further articles about arbitration proceedings:

The arbitration proceedings and how they proceed