MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Hague Court has disallowed an earlier ruling by a court of arbitration obliging Russia to pay $50 billion to the former stakeholders of the defunct Yukos oil company as the court was not in line with its competency, according to a statement on the Dutch judicial system's website.
"The Hague District Court has quashed six arbitration awards (three interim awards and three final awards) of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. In the final awards, the Russian Federation was ordered to pay damages amounting to 50 billion US dollars to Yukos Universal Limited, Hulley Enterprises Limited and Veteran Petroleum Limited. The three parties had been shareholders of the bankrupted Russian oil company Yukos. With the arbitration awards quashed, the Russian Federation is no longer liable for paying compensation to these parties," the statement read.
In July 2014, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled unanimously to award the former shareholders of the now defunct Yukos company $50 billion to be paid by the Russian Federation.
"The Hague District Court has reversed the awards of the international arbitrators on the grounds that they lacked jurisdiction to arbitrate the cases concerning international investment arbitrations based on the ECT [Energy Charter Treaty ]."
In June 2015, France and Belgium froze Russian assets in line with the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
Russia filed several appeals against the arbitration court's 2014 ruling, including with the Hague District Court.
"The court finds that the arbitrators did not have jurisdiction to take cognizance of this case and were therefore wrong to declare themselves competent," the statement concluded.
The Hague Court ordered the ex-shareholders to pay 16,801 euros ($19,072) in court expenses to Russia.
“[O]rders YUL to pay the costs in these proceedings incurred by the Russian Federation, provisionally estimated, up to this judgment, at € 16,801.80,” the Court ruling reads.
