The Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, by its decision, forbid the Finnish company Wartsila Solutions Oy from initiating or continuing dispute proceedings with the Russian JSC Baltic Shipyard (Baltiysky Zavod) before the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.
The Baltic Shipyard itself requested such a decision from the Russian court.
In 2020 and 2021, both the Russian plant and Wartsila Solution Oy signed several contracts for the supply of marine equipment, including nuclear icebreakers.
In 2022, the European Union imposed sanctions on the Baltic Shipyard. Wartsila Solutions Oy then stopped supplying equipment there. After that, companies began arguing about the refund of advanced payments and the termination of contracts.
Wartila Solutions applied to the Stockholm Arbitration Institute for arbitration proceedings. The company asked that the institute have exclusive authority to consider disputes related to supply contracts, that JSC Baltic Shipyard had violated the terms of the agreement, that Wartsila Solutions Oy had lawfully terminated supply contracts and that they were deprived of the ability to supply equipment to the Baltic Shipyard.
In turn, the Baltic Shipyard appealed to the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region.
The Russian court decided that, “in fact, protection of the rights and interests of a Russian legal entity can currently be carried out only within the territory and jurisdiction of the Russian Federation,” and supported the claims of the Baltic Shipyard.
JSC Baltic Shipyard is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the United Shipbuilding Corporation that was founded at the order of Government of the Russian Federation. The company has all the licences required for the nuclear and naval shipbuilding.
In addition to the lawsuit with Baltic Shipyard, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region previously supported Russian Severnaya Verft in a dispute with Wartsila Solution Oy.
