International Arbitration and EU Competition Law Complement Rather than Contradict One Another

The relationship between international arbitration and EU competition law is of practical importance because of the increasing number of cases in which arbitrators are called on to apply competition rules. This article addresses both the theoretical and practical aspects of arbitrating competition law disputes, to give an overall picture of the relationship between international arbitration and competition law. This article shows that the two are not in conflict. Rather, they complement each other, and arbitration can be a method of resolving competition law disputes. This article considers the arbitrability of competition law disputes (section 2); the powers and duties of arbitrators in applying competition law (section 3); the relationship between arbitrators and public enforcers of competition law (section 4); and the scrutiny of awards in which competition law issues are implicated, under both the New York Convention and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Convention (section 5).