Judgment of the Svea Court of Appeal, 8 July 2014, Case No. T 1459-13
Summary: The appellant challenged an SCC award alleging, among other grounds, that the sole arbitrator had not fulfilled its duty to guide the proceedings by failing to clarify the type of sales that gave right to the claimant to terminate the contract. In rejecting the challenge, the Svea Court of Appeal explained that in its opinion the responsibility to clarify any ambiguity in the parties’ cases must mainly lie with the parties and not with the arbitral tribunal. In this case the arbitrator had presented several draft recitals on which the parties had commented and the arbitrator subsequently adjusted the recitals. Thus, both parties had the opportunity to request for clarifications from the counterparty. The Court found that the arbitrator did not fail to guide the proceedings.