Decision of the Supreme Court of Sweden, 13 August 1979, Case No. Ö 1243-78 (Decision No. SÖ 1462)
Summary: The appellant requested the Supreme Court of Sweden to unenforce an ICC award rendered in France, maintaining that parallel challenge proceedings commenced in France rendered the award unenforceable in Sweden. The appellant alleged that due to the challenge proceedings the award had not yet become binding upon the parties under French law, and according to Section 7(5) of the Act on Foreign Arbitration Agreements and Arbitral Awards (1971), a foreign arbitral award was not valid in Sweden if the party against which the arbitration award is relied upon establishes that the arbitral award has not yet become enforceable or is otherwise not binding. The Supreme Court rejected the request, deciding that the award was enforceable regardless of parallel challenge proceedings. The Court explained that both, the wording of Section 7(5) and the preparatory works, indicated that such provision aimed at cases where a foreign authority following a separate review on the merits decided to annul an already binding and enforceable award. The Court emphasized that the ICC award was binding the moment it was rendered by the tribunal.