With respect to International Chamber of Commerce ("ICC") arbitration, consolidation is a procedural mechanism used when two or more pending arbitrations are merged into a single arbitration. Due to the current practice in international commercial transactions that require technical, commercial and financial specialization, the number of multi-party disputes has a tendency to increase. Consolidation may have advantages with regard to procedural efficacy, and may provide procedural economy and cost efficiency. It also lowers the risk of inconsistent decisions. Additionally, the fact-finding phase is facilitated and may be finalized more efficiently, with a more comprehensive presentation of legal and factual positions.
In General
The consolidation of arbitrations is set forth under Art. 10 of the ICC Arbitration Rules ("the Rules"). Pursuant to the relevant article, the International Court of Arbitration ("the Court") may, at the request of one of the parties, consolidate two or more arbitrations that are pending under the Rules into a single arbitration. The Court may decide on the consolidation under the following scenarios, which shall be further examined in this article:
Where the parties have agreed to consolidation, or
Where all of the claims in the arbitrations are made under the same arbitration agreement, or
Where the claims in the arbitrations are made under more than one arbitration agreement, the arbitrations are between the same parties, the disputes in the arbitrations arise in connection with the same legal relationship, and the Court finds the arbitration agreements to be compatible.
