From: Ten Typical Enforcement Cases for Recognition and Enforcement of Extraterritorial Arbitral Awards and Court Judgments

[Information of the parties involved]

Applicant: AAA Co., Ltd.

Respondant: BBB Food Company, CCC Trading Company.

Basic Information of the Case

AAA Co., Ltd. signed an agreement with BBB Food Co., Ltd. and CCC Trading Company, stipulating that AAA Co., Ltd. granted BBB Food Co., Ltd. and CCC Trading Company the exclusive right to import, distribute and promote AAA Co., Ltd.'s products in the Chinese Mainland region, and agreed that disputes arising from the agreement between the two parties should be arbitrated in the Madrid Chamber of Commerce and Industry in accordance with the arbitration rules of the ICC Arbitration Court. Later, AAA Co., Ltd., BBB Food Co., Ltd. and CCC Trading Co., Ltd. had a dispute and submitted it to the Arbitration Court of the International Chamber of Commerce for arbitration. The Arbitration Court of the International Chamber of Commerce made a final award to confirm the termination of the agreement between the two parties, and ruled that BBB Food Co., Ltd. and CCC Trading Co., Ltd. should jointly pay liquidated damages to AAA Co., Ltd. and transfer the network domain names obtained during the business cooperation to AAA Co., Ltd. Later, AAA Co., Ltd. applied to the Fourth Intermediate people's court of Beijing for recognition and enforcement of the arbitral award of the ICC Arbitration Court.

During the execution of the case, the Fourth Intermediate people's court of Beijing learned that the change of the network domain name involved in the case must comply with the relevant provisions of Internet domain name management. To this end, the Fourth Intermediate people's court of Beijing has communicated and consulted with relevant Internet domain name registration and management agencies for many times to understand the specific conditions and procedures for domain name transfer. The relevant department stated that due to the applicant being a foreign company with complete foreign operations and no branch in China, it is not possible to register the domain name change in the case under the name of the applicant AAA Co., Ltd. according to relevant regulations. The presiding judge provided a detailed explanation of the specific situation to the applicant for enforcement, who ultimately withdrew the relevant enforcement application after understanding it.

Execution Results

Because the network domain name involved in the case could not be changed and registered to a pure foreign company, AAA joint-stock company finally withdrew the relevant implementation application.

Typical significance

Based on the application and defense of the parties involved, the focus of arbitration institutions in conducting arbitration awards is on determining the division and resolving disputes, and there is less consideration given to whether the arbitration award can be enforced in the subsequent stages. This issue is particularly prominent in the enforcement of foreign-related arbitration awards. In this case, it is evident that some of the contents of the arbitration award cannot be realized during the execution stage. This also shows that there are still controversies regarding whether substantive or formal review standards should be adopted for extraterritorial arbitration awards and court judgments when handling cases of recognition and enforcement, as well as whether the content of unenforceable awards and judgments should be recognized. The handling of this case provides a reference for the resolution of such issues.