Antin (Infrastructure Services Luxembourg) v Spain: award and enforcement

The claim

The claimants invested in renewable energy generation in Spain and invoked the Energy Charter Treaty ¹. ICSID registered the case on 22 November 2013, and the tribunal was constituted on 7 August 2014 ¹. Eduardo Zuleta was appointed President by the Chairman of the Administrative Council, Francisco Orrego Vicuña by the claimants and J. Christopher Thomas by Spain ¹. Spain was represented by the Abogacía General del Estado ¹.

The tribunal joined Spain's jurisdictional objections to the merits on 2 March 2015 and held a hearing in Paris from 19 to 25 October 2016 ¹. It declared the proceeding closed on 26 February 2018, and Spain asked to reopen it on 7 March 2018 ¹.

The award and rectification

The tribunal rendered its award on 15 June 2018 ¹. italaw records the outcome as in favour of the claimants ². The English Court of Appeal later described the award as requiring Spain to pay the claimants €101 million in compensation ³.

Spain requested rectification, registered on 25 July 2018 ¹. After the death of Francisco Orrego Vicuña the proceeding was suspended on 2 October 2018, and the tribunal was reconstituted with Klaus Reichert on 19 November 2018 ¹. The decision on rectification was issued on 29 January 2019 ¹.

Annulment

Spain's application for annulment was registered on 23 May 2019 with a provisional stay of enforcement ¹. The ad hoc committee was Cavinder Bull (President), José Antonio Moreno Rodríguez and Nayla Comair-Obeid ¹. It ruled on the stay on 21 October 2019, held hearings by video conference in November and December 2020, and issued its Decision on Annulment on 30 July 2021 ¹.

The ICSID case page lists the annulment proceeding as concluded but does not state the result ¹. In October 2024 the Court of Appeal described the award, as rectified, as requiring Spain to pay €101 million, and italaw lists the case outcome as in favour of the claimants ^2,3.

Enforcement in Australia

italaw lists judgments of the Federal Court of Australia between 2020 and 2021 and an order of the High Court of Australia dated 12 April 2023 ². The English Court of Appeal describes that decision, Spain v Infrastructure Services Luxembourg HCA 11 (2023), as concerning the same award and holding that Article 54 of the ICSID Convention operates as a waiver of immunity ³. italaw lists later Federal Court orders on security for costs, FCA 234 (2024) and FCAFC 113 (2024) ².

Enforcement in the United Kingdom

Cockerill J ordered registration of the award in England on 29 June 2021 ³. Fraser J dismissed Spain's application to set aside registration in EWHC 1226 (Comm) (2023), dated 24 May 2023 ³. italaw lists an interim third-party debt order of 26 July 2022 and a Court of Appeal judgment of 1 February 2024 ².

In EWCA Civ 1257 (2024) of 22 October 2024, heard with a Zimbabwe case, the Court of Appeal dismissed Spain's appeal and held that Article 54 is a prior written submission to jurisdiction under section 2 of the State Immunity Act 1978 ³. It did not decide whether the arbitration exception in section 9 applied ³. Spain argued that EU law, following the Achmea and Komstroy rulings, disapplied the treaty's arbitration clause between EU states, an argument Fraser J had rejected ³.

On 4 March 2026 the UK Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Spain's appeal in UKSC 9 (2026), as reported by Susan Stein of Lawyer Monthly ⁵. A client alert by Gibson Dunn, which acted for Border Timbers in the linked appeal, says the court held that Spain could not rely on state immunity to resist recognition and that the ruling does not affect immunity from execution against state assets ⁴.

Status

As of 22 October 2026, recognition of the award has been upheld by the highest courts of Australia and the UK ^3,4. No source opened for this page says Spain has paid the award ^2,4.