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Dispute Resolution Keyed to Carbonneau, 8th Ed.
BG Group v. Republic of Argentina
Citation:
134 S. Ct. 1198 (2014)Facts
In the early 1990s, BG Group, a British firm, invested in Argentina’s privatized gas industry by purchasing a controlling interest in MetroGAS, which had been awarded a 35-year exclusive license to distribute natural gas in Buenos Aires. Argentina had enacted statutes ensuring that gas tariffs would be calculated in U.S. dollars at levels sufficient to ensure reasonable returns for distribution firms. In 2001-2002, facing an economic crisis, Argentina enacted new laws changing the basis for calculating gas tariffs from dollars to pesos at a rate of one peso per dollar, when the actual exchange rate was about three pesos to the dollar. This change transformed MetroGAS’s profits into losses. BG Group believed these changes violated the UK-Argentina investment treaty, which required disputes to first be submitted to Argentina’s courts for 18 months before proceeding to arbitration. Instead of complying with this requirement, BG Group directly initiated arbitration in 2003, arguing that Argentina’s actions had made compliance with the local litigation requirement futile. The arbitration panel agreed, finding it had jurisdiction and awarding BG Group $185 million in damages after determining that Argentina had denied BG Group “fair and equitable treatment” under the treaty.
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