The IMPACTA LAW team successfully represented a French supplier of metal powders, as respondent in international arbitration under the ICAC Rules.

The dispute arose out of a supply agreement concluded with a Ukrainian purchaser. At the contract negotiation stage, fraudsters interfered with the parties’ business correspondence, using email addresses that were visually indistinguishable from the genuine addresses, and falsified the seller’s bank details both in the contract and the payment documents. As a result of the fraudsters’ interference, within performance of the agreement, the Ukrainian buyer made an advance payment for the goods to the bank account of a foreign third-party company specifically established for the fraudulent scheme, the name of which was almost identical to that of the seller.

Within the arbitration proceedings, the issue arose as to whether the buyer had duly performed its obligation to make the advance payment for the goods and, consequently, whether the seller’s corresponding obligation to deliver the goods had arisen. The arbitral tribunal was asked to determine whether the buyer had met the standard of reasonable care required when making international payments, and which party should bear the risk of the loss.

Following consideration of the case, the arbitral tribunal fully upheld the position advanced by IMPACTA LAW and dismissed the claim in its entirety.

The team working on the case was led by Dr. Olena Perepelynska, Partner and Head of the International Arbitration Practice, and included Senior Associate Anna Kozyrieva and Associate Angelina Sniadanko.