Landmark Victory for International Arbitration Practice

Quinn Emanuel recently won over USD 14 billion for Uniper Global Commodities in an arbitration against Gazprom Export. The Tribunal also confirmed Uniper’s right to terminate a series of long-term gas supply contracts immediately.

            This Award – which constitutes one of the largest reported awards in international arbitration – resulted in European gas prices jumping within hours of Uniper publishing the result of the award.

            Uniper suffered substantial losses due to the Russian gas supply restrictions in 2022. From June 2022, Gazprom Export initially supplied less natural gas to Germany and then stopped completely. Uniper had to procure gas for its customers by other means, in some cases at extremely high market prices, which at times led to additional costs for Uniper in the hundreds of millions of euros every day. Uniper was only able to bear these additional costs with support from the German State. This is when they called Quinn Emanuel for support.

            Quinn Emanuel commenced arbitration proceedings against Gazprom Export on Uniper’s behalf at the end of 2022. The tribunal was seated in Stockholm and applied Swiss law. The dispute turned on the question whether Gazprom Export’s under deliveries constituted a breach of the contracts between Uniper and Gazprom Export. The multi-office Quinn Emanuel team composed of lawyers from Geneva, Zurich, London, New York, and Paris ensured that the required expertise for this complex, high-value arbitration was available at all times.

            On 7 June 2024, the Tribunal issued its award, adopting all positions we argued in our submissions and at the hearing. We obtained USD 14 billion in damages for our client in addition to a right to terminate the long-term delivery contracts. The win represents a landmark victory for Quinn Emanuel’s international arbitration practice. The client is, of course, overjoyed with the result.