GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: John Dryllerakis, Claire Sergaki and Vasileios Plakoulas, Dryllerakis Law Firm
it the original award with the secretariat of the civil single-member court of first instance of the district where the arbitration was seated. If said seat cannot be determined, the deposit shall be completed with the secretariat of the civil single-member court of first instance of Athens. 10.2 Types of Remedies The question of potential limitations on the types of remedies an arbitral tribunal can award typically arises either during the hearing of a petition for set aside before the Greek courts or in a petition for the recognition and/or enforcement of an award. In these instances, the Greek court will determine whether the recognition or enforcement of a specific remedy would contravene Greek public policy. With respect to punitive damages, the Greek Supreme Court has ruled that enforcing a foreign court’s deci - sion awarding such damages is not inherently con - trary to Greek public policy, provided the damages awarded are not excessively disproportionate. Furthermore, arbitral tribunals are empowered to order specific performance, since Greek civil law generally allows for specific performance as a primary remedy, especially in contractual disputes where the obligation is sufficiently defined and enforceable. Regarding administrative acts, it is settled case law that an arbitral tribunal has the power to declare that a certain administrative act runs contrary to the contrac - tual obligations undertaken by the state vis-à-vis its counterparty. Said ruling is binding upon the admin - istrative courts (under the limitations set out in 5.2 Circumstances for Court Intervention ) where relevant annulment proceedings against the said administra - tive act may be initiated, as the arbitral tribunal does not have the power to annul administrative acts. 10.3 Recovering Interest and Legal Costs Article 41.4 of Law 5016/2023 stipulates that, unless otherwise agreed by the parties, the arbitral tribunal shall decide on the allocation of the costs, having regard to the circumstances of the case, the pro - ceedings and the outcome. That said, Law 5016/2023 adopts the principle of costs-follow-the-event (or the “loser pays” principle). Each party requesting to be
compensated for its legal and arbitration costs shall simultaneously prove that such costs were reasonably incurred. On the other hand, the awarding of litigation interest (and/or interest on interest) does not fall under the scope of Law 5016/2023 but is rather regulated by the provisions of substantive law applicable to the case at hand. The arbitral tribunal may grant such types of interest, provided that the prerequisites set by law are met and the arbitration agreement does not prohibit it.
11. Review of an Award 11.1 Grounds for Appeal Grounds for Setting Aside
The arbitral award cannot be appealed. It may only be challenged through an application for annulment/ setting aside, according to the provisions of Article 43 of Law 5016/2023. The grounds for setting aside are limited. For an application to set aside to be success - ful, the applicant shall establish that: • a party to the arbitration agreement lacked the capacity to conclude the agreement in accordance with the law governing its capacity, or the arbitra - tion agreement is not valid, or the tribunal declined jurisdiction despite a valid arbitration agreement; • it was not given proper notice of the appointment of an arbitrator or of the arbitral proceedings, or was otherwise prohibited from presenting its case for reasons not attributable to it; • the award deals with a dispute that falls outside the scope of the arbitration agreement or contains decisions on claims that were not submitted to arbitration (in such case, only the part pertaining to those claims shall be set aside); • the composition of the arbitral tribunal or the con - duct of the arbitral proceedings was not in accord - ance with the agreement of the parties or with Law 5016/2023; • there are grounds for a petition for revision (of a court judgment) under Article 544.6 (perjury or fal - sified/forged document) and Article 544.10 (bribery) of the Greek Code of Civil Procedure; • the subject matter of the dispute is not arbitrable; or
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