Julia Mironchik

Despite the fact that Belarus has not introduced a general quarantine, and the situation has spread COVID-19 is not considered as force majeure, at the beginning of April 2020 the Bel CCI confirmed 2 cases of issuance of the presence of force majeure. The certificates were issued to importers whose obligations to Belarusian buyers could not be fulfilled due to the fact of force majeure with a foreign supplier, which was confirmed by the certificate of the relevant chamber of commerce.

According to the rating, Arzinger Law Offices is one of the key law firms in the Belarusian market in the practice of “Dispute Resolution”. Also, in the published rating of the International Financial Law Review (IFLR 1000) 2020, Arzinger Law Offices confirmed its last year position.

Organizers of Summer School are the International Arbitration Court at the BelCCI, the Belarusian National Bar Association, Control Сenter of the Business Conflict “Most” and the Young Alternative Dispute Resolution project – Belarus with assistance of Arzinger Attorneys at law, Lex Torre Attorneys at law, MBpravo Attorneys at law and Sorainen Attorneys at law.

Arzinger congratulates Julia Mironchik and Veronika Pavlovskaya on a brilliant victory in a multimillion-dollar construction dispute between a Central European construction company and the subsidiary of a transnational corporation. The dispute arose from the contract based on the FIDIC model construction contract, and was administered by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.

On 23 April 2019 the Young Arbitrators Forum of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC YAF) together with the Young ADR – Belarus with the support of the Arzinger and Sorainen held a seminar on arbitration in IT and IT in arbitration.

The creditors’ demands within the bankruptcy procedure are satisfied in the order prescribed by law.

Reminder on the order principle: the creditors’ demands are enqueued with one of 5 priorities depending on their type. They will be satisfied only after the demands of higher priority will be satisfied in full. The debts under commercial contracts have 5th priority; the pledged obligations have 4th priority. The pledge mechanism is often used by banks when securing that the borrower returns the loaned money, so they usually have 4th priority. Priorities 1-3 are given to the debt before the employees, the state budget, etc.

A foreign construction companyRepresentation of interests of a foreign construction company that specializes in construction of power engineering facilities in reviewing of a dispute with a Belarusian customer regarding the turnkey facility construction agreement (an EPC contract with application of the FIDIC book) in the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.

Arzinger performed the legal expertise of the dispute regarding the customer’s fault in violation of timing of design and construction works, equipment supply. They represented the client’s interests in the dispute resolution during the arbitration litigation. The disputed amount was over USD 50 million. 

The Belarusian Expert Center for the issues of production and processing of potash ores and other mineral resources. Representation in court on the issues of a bank guarantee and recovery of unjust enrichment. The dispute amount was over $1 million.

Representation of interests of a Belarusian subsidiary of the largest Chinese telecommunication company in the dispute with a Belarusian contractor associated with construction of one of the biggest data centers in Europe.

Arzinger performed the legal expertise of performance of the agreement with the contractor, ensured holding of negotiations and representation of the client’s interests in Belarusian economic courts. The disputed amount was over USD 10 million.

We represented the client in a number of disputes with foreign and Belarusian contractors in the International Arbitration Court at the BelCCI and in Belarusian economic courts.

The dispute was associated with performance of construction and installation works in connection with production facilities modernization within the scope of investment projects. The disputed amount is over USD 10 million.

Advising on the issue of acknowledgment of the competitor’s actions for trademark registration and use to a fact of unfair competition and consequences of such acknowledgment, procedure of acknowledgment of the trademark registration as invalid.

Representation of interests of a Belarusian manufacturer of heat and fluids metering and regulating devices in a case of unfair competition in courts and governmental bodies regarding the dispute of sales of the goods identical to the competitor’s goods by a Russian company (including sales via its subsidiary in Belarus) with specifying itself as the manufacturer of the goods.

Representation of interests of a security systems manufacturer in a case of unfair competition. The situation of monopsony (one major buyer) was actually formed in the commodity market and suppliers had to interact with each other so that the goods of one supplier could be used along with the goods of the others.

Several suppliers demanded that their competitor transferred the software that ensures functioning of security systems to them free of charge, which the latter reasonably considered a violation of its rights. We not only ensured representation of the client’s interest at the antitrust body investigation stage, but also interacted with the antitrust body for the issues of interpretation and proper implementation of its decision.

Advising and representation of interests in the course of reslution of a corporate dispute between members of the company.

Within the scope of the project, lawyers not only held negotiations and maintained claim correspondence, represented interests in Belarusian economic courts and Russian arbitration court. They also managed to achieve a comprehensive settlement of disputes with registration of changes in the company’s members composition with no damage to the business. The dispute amount is over USD 3 million.

Support of debt collection from a Belarusian purchaser in the course of the economic insolvency (bankruptcy) procedure including performance of expertise of the debtor’s financial standing, sale of real estate property, challenging the manager’s actions. The dispute amount is over USD 500 thousand.

Support of the company in a number of disputes in connection with inspections of law-enforcement bodies of the Republic of Belarus on the issues of correctness of accrual and payment of taxes, drawing up of shipping documents, observance of the provisions of Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus No.488 of October 23. 2012. The dispute amount is over USD 800 thousand.

Arzinger advised a Belarusian oil industry enterprise on a so called demurrage dispute, i.e., recovery of the losses for excess demurrage of tankers under the German law. As a result of the negotiations held, the carrier withdrew its claims.

Arzinger advised and represented the Belarusian automobile manufacturer’s interests in negotiations with a foreign contractor regarding the dispute over performance of a turnkey construction contract concluded with application of the FIDIC book under the German law.

The dispute amount was over USD 20 million. As a result of the negotiations held, the contractor withdrew its claims.