GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: John Dryllerakis, Claire Sergaki and Vasileios Plakoulas, Dryllerakis Law Firm
11. Review of an Award 11.1 Grounds for Appeal Grounds for Setting Aside
Procedural Issues The application for annulment must be filed before the civil three-member court of appeals of the district where the award was rendered or that of Athens if said district cannot be determined, within three months of the date of formal service of the award to the appli - cant. Pursuant to Article 43.4 of Law 5016/2023, a party may not rely on its own actions/omissions as grounds to have an award set aside. In accordance with Article 43.5 of Law 5016/2023, the court may, upon a party’s request or ex officio, refer the dispute back to the arbitral tribunal that issued the arbitral award to remedy a defect instead of annul - ling the arbitral award in whole or in part due to such defect. The arbitral tribunal must remedy the defect within 90 days of the referral; said deadline may be extended only under exceptional circumstances. Lastly, Article 43.7 of Law 5016/2023 stipulates that the parties may waive their right to apply for the set - ting aside of the arbitral award at any time by virtue of an explicit, written and specific agreement. In accord - ance with the same provision, a party may invoke the grounds for set-aside in proceedings against the enforcement of the arbitral award, notwithstanding said waiver. 11.2 Excluding/Expanding the Scope of Appeal The new Law 5016/2023 does not explicitly provide for the possibility of the parties to expand the scope of challenge of an arbitral award, as was stipulated in Law 2735/1999. However, under Article 43.7 of Law 5016/2023, by express and specific written agree - ment, the parties may at any time waive their right to seek to have an arbitral award set aside. Nevertheless, despite the existence of such an explicit waiver, the party may invoke grounds for annulment against the arbitral award during enforcement proceedings before the civil single-member court of first instance, under the same article. As recognised by Greek jurisprudence, including domestic arbitrations and those under the previous framework of Law 2735/1999, parties can validly
The arbitral award cannot be appealed. It may be chal - lenged only through an application for annulment/set - ting aside, in accordance with the provisions of Article 43 of Law 5016/2023. The grounds for setting aside are limited. For an application to set aside to be suc - cessful, 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 • the award runs contrary to the international public policy of Greece within the meaning of Article 33 of the Greek Civil Code. In fact, the civil three-member court of appeals before which an application for set aside was brought may determine on its own motion that the subject matter of the dispute is non-arbitrable or that the award violates international public policy, even in cases where the applicant had not invoked such grounds.
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