In Philip Morris and others v Oriental Republic of Uruguay (ICSID Case No. ARB/10/7), the majority of the tribunal rejected Philip Morris’ claims against Uruguay challenging its tobacco packaging legislation. The tribunal found that there was not even a prima facie case of indirect expropriation, nor were there other breaches of the BIT. Gary Born, the claimants' nominated arbitrator, issued a concurring and dissenting opinion in which he opined there had been a denial of justice and one of the measures adopted by the state was arbitrary and disproportionate because it failed to fulfill its purported purpose. The tribunal ordered the claimants to pay US$7 million towards Uruguay's costs. We will report in more detail shortly.

The Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC) has released statistics on the number of applications for the appointment of an emergency arbitrator. In the first six months of 2016, the SCC received a record number of nine applications (two based on investment treaty protection agreements). In all applications an emergency arbitrator was appointed within 24 hours of the request and the time between referral and the decision varied between 5 and 8 days. An emergency arbitrator decision made under the SCC Rules 2010 has also recently been published (see Legal update, SCC emergency arbitrator dismisses interim measures application against Moldova).