Wintershall Dea v. Russia

In December 2024, Wintershall Dea (Germany) commenced PCA arbitration against Russia under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), challenging Russian Presidential Decrees No. 965 and No. 966 of December 19, 2023, on special measures in the energy sector, through which, in the German claimant’s view, its assets in Russia were expropriated. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office applied to the Moscow Arbitrazh Court under Articles 248.1 and 248.2 of the Russian Arbitrazh Procedure Code. By a judgment published on September 9, 2025, the court prohibited Wintershall Dea, its lawyers, successors, and beneficiaries, as well as the arbitrators, from continuing the PCA arbitration on pain of a court fine of €7.5B. On November 21, 2025, a ruling was issued ordering joint and several recovery of the fine. The PCA tribunal, for its part, ordered Russia in October 2025 to discontinue the Moscow proceedings. DIFC judge Jeremy Cooke also issued a penal notice against Russia requiring it to discontinue the proceedings in the Russian courts under threat of criminal liability. In addition, on March 5, 2026, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office filed another claim, seeking the lifetime disqualification of one of the arbitrators, Charles Poncet, citing his anti-Russian stance.

The Russian court extended the injunction under Article 248.2 of the Russian Arbitrazh Procedure Code not only to the foreign investor but also to the PCA arbitrators themselves, under threat of a €7.5B fine. This is one of the most striking examples of “anti-arbitration” measures. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office initiated precedent-setting proceedings for the lifetime disqualification of an arbitrator, a demand never previously made by either private parties or states. The DIFC judge, in turn, took rather tough measures against the respondent state, which is also uncommon in investment disputes.