## Facts

- A, B, and C were parties to a single contract that contained an ICC arbitration clause.
- A dispute arose under the contract.
- A commenced ICC arbitration by filing a Request for Arbitration against B under Article 3 of the ICC Rules.
- In its Answer, B sought to expand the case by asking the tribunal to add additional parties:
  - C, a co-signatory to the contract, as an additional claimant (i.e., on the claimant side of the case);
  - D, A’s controlling company, as an additional claimant; and
  - E, B’s controlling company, as an additional respondent.
- The joinder requests would have changed the set of parties identified in A’s initiating Request and would have brought corporate affiliates (at least some of which were not signatories) into the arbitration.
- The tribunal issued a partial award addressing whether, under the ICC Rules and the arbitration agreement, it could add these parties at B’s request.

## Issues

1. Whether, under the ICC Rules and the parties’ arbitration clause, a respondent may require that another contract party (C) be joined in the same arbitration as an additional claimant.
2. Whether the tribunal may add non-signatory controlling companies (D and E) as claimant or respondent based solely on a respondent’s request in its Answer.
3. Whether the arbitration may proceed between A and B even if the requested joinder is refused.

## Decision

- The tribunal denied B’s request to add C as an additional claimant.
- The tribunal also denied B’s requests to add D (A’s controlling company) as an additional claimant and to add E (B’s controlling company) as an additional respondent.
- The tribunal confirmed that, as constituted by A’s Request and B’s Answer, the arbitration continued between A (claimant) and B (respondent).
- The tribunal indicated that entities not made parties through the ICC Rules’ initiation mechanism could participate only through their own clear agreement to do so (for example, by filing their own request or otherwise consenting in a manner recognized by the Rules).

## Legal Principles

- Under the ICC Rules then in force, party status in an ICC arbitration is tied to the initiation process: a claimant begins the case by filing a Request that identifies the parties to the proceeding.
- The Rules did not give a respondent a matching right to initiate arbitration “on behalf of” another entity by adding it as a co-claimant through the respondent’s Answer.
- Joinder in arbitration depends on consent and a procedural basis in the applicable rules or agreement; absent that, a tribunal should not compel participation by another entity, even if that entity signed the same contract.
- The presence of related corporate entities (such as controlling companies) does not, by itself, permit their addition to the case; a tribunal must still find a valid basis to treat them as parties to the arbitration and to the particular proceeding.
- Denial of joinder does not bar parallel or later proceedings by other signatories; a non-joined signatory remains free to invoke the arbitration clause through its own claim or by agreeing to participate.

## Conclusion

In this partial award, the ICC tribunal refused a respondent’s attempt to expand the arbitration by adding another contract party as an additional claimant and by adding controlling companies as additional parties, holding that the ICC Rules’ structure for commencing arbitration did not permit respondent-driven joinder without a proper procedural basis and clear consent; the arbitration therefore proceeded only between A and B as identified in the original Request and Answer.


Partial Award in ICC Case No. 5625, ICC, Multiparty Arbitration 41-42 (1987)