Version du Règlement : 1988

Demandeurs : personnes morales (Suisse, Bahamas), personne physique (Allemagne)

Défendeurs : personne morale (îles Vierges Britanniques), personne physique (Etats-Unis)

Les parties conclurent une série de contrats relatifs à l'utilisation par le demandeur des programmes informatiques et de la technologie de la personne morale défenderesse. A la suite de différends relatifs à l'exécution de ces contrats, les droits et obligations des parties furent reformulés dans un nouveau contrat, qui à son tour donna lieu à controverse. Dans la procédure arbitrale les demandeurs sollicitaient une déclaration constatant que les défendeurs ne pouvaient prétendre à aucune revendication à leur encontre découlant desdits contrats. Ils demandaient également des dommages-intérêts et certaines mesures provisoires et conservatoires. La présente sentence intérimaire traitait de la compétence et des mesures préliminaires/conservatoires.

La clause d'arbitrage de la première série de contrats :

'"All disputes arising in connection with any Related Agreement shall be settled by final and binding arbitration in Zurich, Switzerland in accordance with the Rules of Arbitration and Conciliation of the International Chamber of Commerce before a tribunal of three arbitrators. The decision of the Arbitral Tribunal shall be final and the Parties waive all challenge of the award in accordance with Article 192 of the Private International Law Statute. Without prejudice to the rights of either party to have recourse to the competent ordinary courts for such relief, the Arbitrator(s) shall have power to grant preliminary and permanent injunctive relief and to order specific performance of the Related Agreements. The Parties agree that such arbitration shall be conducted in the English language, and any court of competent jurisdiction may enter a judgment on the arbitral award. The panel of arbitrators will be chosen as follows: one arbitrator by [Claimant companies], one by [Defendant company] and the third arbitrator by the other two. If either party fails to appoint an arbitrator within thirty (30) days after receipt of notice of arbitration or if the third arbitrator is not appointed within forty-five (45) days from notice of arbitration, the appointment shall be made by the President of the Commercial Court of Zurich, Switzerland. The Parties acknowledge that a failure by [Defendant company] to perform its obligations under the Related Agreements regarding the delivery to [Claimant company] of Technology or new Technology or a failure by either party to perform its obligations under the Related Agreements regarding the confidentiality, non-disclosure and protection of the Technology or New Technology will cause the other party immediate, irreparable harm, for which monetary damages will be inadequate compensation, and that either party shall be entitled to preliminary and permanent injunctive relief from such harm."'

La clause d'arbitrage du contrat ultérieur :

'"All disputes arising in connection with this Agreement shall be settled by final and binding arbitration in Zurich, Switzerland under the Rules of Arbitration and Conciliation of the International Chamber of Commerce before a tribunal of three arbitrators. The decision of the Arbitral Tribunal shall be final, and the Parties waive all challenge of the award in accordance with Article 192 of the Private International Law Statute. The Arbitrator(s) shall have power to grant preliminary and permanent injunctive relief and to order specific performance of this Agreement. The Parties agree that such arbitration shall be conducted in the English language, and any court of competent jurisdiction may enter a judgment of the arbitral award. The panel of arbitrators will be chosen as follows: one arbitrator by [Claimant companies], one arbitrator by [Defendant company], and the third by the other two. If either party fails to appoint an arbitrator within thirty (30) days after receipt of notice of arbitration or if the third arbitrator is not appointed within forty-five (45) days from notice of arbitration, the appointment shall be made by the President of the Commercial Court of Zurich, Switzerland."'

Les défendeurs contestaient la validité des conventions d'arbitrage en invoquant la fraude et/ou l'intimidation. Le tribunal arbitral examina cette question au regard des règles de fond de la loi suisse relatives au droit des contrats qu'il estimait applicables à la formation, à la validité et à la nullité de la convention d'arbitrage. Il se prononça en faveur de la validité des contrats. En ce qui concerne les mesures préliminaires et conservatoires, il se prononça de la manière suivante :

'In the original request for arbitration Claimants had made the following requests for provisional and protective measures:

"1. Defendants shall be ordered to refrain from further pursuing any action in Texan or United States courts, in particular the action which they filed against Claimants before the District Court of Harris County, Texas . . . pending delivery of the final award by the Arbitral Tribunal in accordance with this Request for Arbitration;

2. Defendants shall be ordered to deposit with the Arbitral Tribunal or such trustee as the Arbitral Tribunal may designate the four 3-1/2" disks containing [Claimant company] indicators and models on the cash currency markets in Dollar/Deutsche Mark, Dollar/Swiss Franc, Dollar/British Pound and Dollar/Yen as well as certain cash currency data which were delivered by [Claimant company] to [Defendant company].

3. Defendants shall be prohibited from making any use of or from disseminating the [Claimant company] Technology and [Claimant company] Data . . . pending delivery of the final award by the Arbitral Tribunal in accordance with this Request for Arbitration."

In their brief of . . ., Claimants declare that requests 1. and 2. had become obsolete. They maintain their request no. 3 pursuant to which Defendants should be prohibited from making any use of [Claimant company] technology data which they may have.

At the hearing, Defendants' representative stated that they denied to have in their possession any of Claimants' technology but that Defendant also undertook not to use any of Claimants' technology during the course of the arbitration.

Based on this declaration of Defendants, there is no sufficient likelihood or danger of Defendants' using any of Claimants' technology. There is, therefore, no reason or necessity for the Arbitrators to grant an injunction against Defendants at this time.

. . .

Based on the above, the Arbitrators make the following Interim Award . . .

At this time, Claimants' requests for preliminary and protective measures are rejected to the extent not already withdrawn by Claimants.

The determination of amount and attribution of costs is left to the final Award.

. . .'