DENMARK Law and Practice Contributed by: Anne Buhl Bjelke, Johannes Grove Nielsen, Camilla Hudson and Rasmus Schmidt, Bech-Bruun
1. General 1.1 Prevalence of Arbitration
Divided by subject matter, the statistics indicate that the largest categories are shareholders’ agreements, M&A, purchase agreements, co-operation agree - ments and service agreements. Approximately one- fifth of the cases commenced at the DIA in 2024 are characterised as international arbitration. Naturally, international arbitration cases would be most com - mon in industries with prevalent cross-border activi - ties, engagements, etc. The 2024 statistics shows an increase in arbitration in Denmark by more than 40 cases since 2023. 1.3 Arbitration Institutions The DIA has existed as an institution for arbitration since 1894. The DIA in its current form was created as a non-profit, self-governing institution in 1981. In contrast to sector-specific institutions, the DIA adjudi - cates cases in a wide variety of sectors. The DIA has prepared the DIA Rules for Arbitration Procedures (the “DIA Rules”), with the latest version being in force as of 13 April 2021. The Danish Building and Construction Arbitration Board (the “Arbitration Board”) oversees the vast majority of arbitral disputes in the construction sec - tor. Along with its predecessors, AB 18 is the most commonly used document in agreements concerning the building and construction sector. AB 18 contains an arbitration clause referring to the Arbitration Board as the dispute resolution institute. While dispute reso - lution before the Arbitration Board is categorised as arbitration under the Danish Arbitration Act of 2005 (the DAA) and the New York Convention on the Rec - ognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the “New York Convention”), the proceedings deviate from international arbitration in relation to the oppor - tunity and custom of appointing technical arbitrators instead of legal arbitrators. Arbitrators with a legal background are, as a rule, appointed from a commit - tee consisting of judges from the High Courts and the Supreme Court, while arbitrators with a professional background in the field of conflict are proposed by the Secretariat of the Arbitration Board. Institutions of international character, such as the International Chamber of Commerce, are also occa - sionally used by Danish parties.
Solving legal disputes before a tribunal outside the state-established court system has been accepted and recognised in Denmark for centuries. However, the use of arbitration as a method for dispute resolu - tion has grown in popularity since the enactment of the first comprehensive act regulating arbitration in 1972. The possibility of confidentiality, the ability for the parties to influence the appointment of arbitra - tors, the expediency of proceedings, the finality of the arbitration award, the expertise of the arbitrators and global enforcement opportunities are some of the main factors driving this increased popularity, particu - larly in relation to commercial disputes. International arbitration in Denmark is most preva - lent in disputes between professional parties, where one of the parties is domiciled in Denmark and the other parties involved are from other countries. How - ever, since 2022, an increase has been seen in purely international cases with no Danish parties referred to arbitration under Danish law, pursuant to the rules of both the Danish Institute of Arbitration (DIA) and the Nordic Offshore and Maritime Arbitration Association (NOMA). An arbitration agreement is also found in many of the agreed documents most commonly used in Denmark. For example, most agreements regarding construction projects pertain to arbitration, as these agreements often refer to agreed documents (the general condi - tions for consulting services for building and construc - tion works from 2018, known as ABR 18, or general conditions for building and construction works and supplies from 2018, known as AB 18), where arbitra - tion is the default dispute resolution option. 1.2 Key Industries Statistics regarding the use of arbitration in general are not available in Denmark. However, the DIA posts statistics of the cases filed with it. The latest statistics published by the DIA for 2024 show that the most dominant sectors are industry, telecommunications and information technology, commerce, transport, finance and insurance, and energy, while the remain - ing cases are spread across a variety of industries.
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