The decision concerns the Republic of Estonia’s request to redact key references and documents from information published on the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) website. In addition, the Tribunal rejected the Republic of Estonia’s claim, stating that AS Tallinna Vesi had conducted a media campaign against the Republic of Estonia.
On 9th of June 2016, the Tribunal of the ICSID, notified the parties of its position on the publication of Annexes A and B to the Tribunal’s 3rd of May 2016, Procedural Order No. 3.
Procedural Order No. 3 set out the parties’ arguments on document production and the Tribunal’s rulings on the same. Annexes A and B to the Procedural Order No. 3 contained Claimants’ and Respondent’s Document Requests with Tribunal’s decisions regarding the requests.
The Republic of Estonia had previously objected to the publication of Annexes A and B to the Procedural Order No. 3, and requested extensive redactions to the published versions of the Annexes. The redactions included any reference to the Estonian Ministries and Ministers, the Estonian Parliament and its members, the Estonian Competition Authority, the State Audit Office, the Legal Chancellor, the City of Tallinn, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Commission. In contrast, AS Tallinna Vesi supported the publication of the Annexes in full without redaction, but as a compromise was prepared to accept redactions related to; direct quotations from the parties’ submissions, witness statements and expert reports and the names of witnesses and experts.
On 9th of June 2016, the Tribunal notified the parties, that it considered only limited redactions to be reasonable and instructed ICSID to publish the Annexes with only the following information redacted: (i) direct quotations from the parties' submissions, witness statements and expert reports, and exhibits; and (ii) the names of witnesses and experts, as well as third parties other than those which (or who) plainly exercise public functions.
The Tribunal did not redact its rulings in Annex B to the Procedural Order No. 3. Among others, the Government of Estonia claimed that AS Tallinna Vesi has been engaged in a media campaign against the Government of Estonia and sought to require AS Tallinna Vesi to disclose various documents on this basis. The Tribunal rejected this request, stating following: “The Tribunal is not persuaded of the relevance and/or the materiality of the parties’ so-called media campaigns.”
Procedural Order No. 3, attaching the annexes, is available on the ICSID website here. Other procedural orders and decisions issued during the arbitration proceedings, subject to the redaction of confidential information, are available on the ICSID website. The final hearing remains scheduled for November 2016.
Background:
In October 2014, AS Tallinna Vesi and its shareholder United Utilities (Tallinn) B.V., registered in the Kingdom of The Netherlands, commenced international arbitration proceedings against the Republic of Estonia for breach of the Agreement on the Encouragement and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between the Kingdom of The Netherlands and the Republic of Estonia.
Mariliis Mia Topp
AS Tallinna Vesi
Head of Communications
Ph: (+372) 62 62 275
mariliismia.topp@tvesi.ee