The Stockholm Chamber of Commerce is opening access to its Ad Hoc Platform (free of charge for the period of the COVID-19 pandemic)

The Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (“SCC”) has announced the possibility of using its service for the online administration of arbitration proceedings (the SCC Platform) in ad hoc arbitration[1]. The service will be available for any ad hoc arbitration.

Access to it will be opened starting from May 2020.

The Ad Hoc Platform will allow the administration of ad hoc arbitration to be optimised in the following way:

• for each case, an individual site is created with access to it provided only to the participants of the proceedings; this eliminates the need to send documents by e-mail and ensures full confidentiality;
• all the documentation relating to the case is uploaded to the case site, including: the documents of the parties and attachments to them, the correspondence between the panel and the parties, the procedural acts of the panel, statements of the parties, etc.;
• the participants of the proceedings enjoy unlimited and permanent access to the materials of the arbitration proceedings;
• the website features a calendar which sets out all the events and deadlines relating to the arbitration proceedings;
• the website will be accessible to the parties and the panel for one year after the arbitration proceedings have been closed.

The use of the Ad Hoc Platform does not mean that the arbitration proceedings will be administered by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. The secretariat of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce will provide the necessary assistance when using the service but will not have access to the content of the case website and to the information and documents stored on it.

Please note that the use of the Ad Hoc Platform will be free of charge during the COVID-19 pandemic. This applies to all ad hoc arbitration cases registered before 31 December 2020 (the period may be extended, depending on how the situation with the pandemic develops), and the fees for using the service will not be collected throughout the entire period of arbitration.

To use the Ad Hoc Platform, arbitrators in ad hoc arbitration cases are asked to contact the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce at arbitration@chamber.se.

Taking into account that all arbitration proceedings are now conducted online (at all stages), access to the online administration service will significantly simplify the administration of ad hoc arbitration.

If, according to the terms and conditions of your contracts, disputes arising out of them are resolved via ad hoc arbitration, we recommend, in the case of a dispute, discussing with the ad hoc arbitrator and your opponent the possibility to use the Ad Hoc Platform of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. This service is unique and is not provided by other arbitration institutions.