Justice Minister Jung Seong-ho is giving a briefing on the 23rd at the Government Complex in Seoul’s Jongno District regarding the government’s victory in a lawsuit filed in the UK court to annul the arbitration ruling in the international investment dispute (ISDS) case against the American private equity firm, Elliott. [News1]
The government won the cancellation lawsuit that it filed against the ruling which mandated it to pay approximately 155.5 billion won (around 107.82 million USD) to the American hedge fund Elliott Management, as decided in an international investment dispute (ISDS).
On the 23rd, the Ministry of Justice announced, “We won the UK court cancellation lawsuit regarding the ISDS case arbitration ruling against Elliott.”
Previously, in 2023, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruled that the Korean government must pay approximately 155.5 billion won to Elliott.
The Korean government filed a cancellation lawsuit with the UK court, the arbitration venue, claiming that the PCA adjudicated a case over which it had no jurisdiction, based on the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) provisions.
With this judgment, the original arbitration ruling that acknowledged the government’s compensation obligation can no longer be sustained, and the case has been remanded back to the arbitration procedure.
The Elliott case involves allegations that during Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s succession of managerial control at Samsung Electronics, the merger ratio between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries in 2015 was unfavorable to Samsung C&T. Even so, the National Pension Service, a major shareholder, supported it, causing harm to Samsung C&T shareholders. Elliott was a shareholder of Samsung C&T at that time.