French Court Rejects Benin Challenge to Securiport Airport Arbitration Award
A French court rejected an attempt by Benin to set aside a major international arbitration award in favour of Securiport, according to a report by Global Arbitration Review. Benin had challenged the award on corruption-related grounds.
Archive note: the original publication date could not be verified. March 14, 2021 is an assigned catalogue date for this record.
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A French court rejected an attempt by Benin to set aside a major international arbitration award in favour of Securiport, according to a report by Global Arbitration Review. Benin had challenged the award on corruption-related grounds.
The dispute followed Benin's 2016 cancellation of an airport immigration security contract with the US company. In January 2019, an International Chamber of Commerce tribunal awarded compensation reported at approximately US$95 million.
Benin then pursued proceedings in France to challenge the award. The reported French decision rejected the state's attempt to overturn it on the corruption argument. That is a ruling concerning the validity of an arbitral award, not a blanket judicial finding about every aspect of the original procurement.
The case is distinct from criminal proceedings reported in Benin concerning individual company representatives. The existence of those proceedings should not be conflated with the outcome of the arbitration challenge.
The most reliable way to understand the litigation is to separate the cancelled contract, the arbitral decision, the French court's review and any domestic criminal case. Those proceedings address different legal questions and can produce different outcomes.