This article reproduces notes from a recent meeting of the Commodity Arbitration Club where the Law Commission gave a presentation and answered questions on reforms to the Arbitration Act 1996.

This article is reproduced by kind permission of Mr Kyri Evagora of Reed Smith.
In the case of Quadra Commodities S.A. v. XL Insurance & Co [2022] EWHC 431 (Comm), the Court was asked to consider whether the Claimant was entitled to an indemnity under its marine cargo policy in circumstances where the goods it had purchased went missing from the Ukrainian warehouses in which they were supposed to have been stored prior to delivery at ports and then export.

In this article, Jay O’Neill, Senior Agricultural Economist at IGP at Kansas State University provides us with a quick analysis on the Black Sea situation

Gafta has announced changes to Gafta 125 and 126 Arbitration Rules which will become effective for contracts entered into on or after 1 March 2022.

In this article, we highlight the recent decision in Sharp Corp Ltd v Viterra BV [2022] EWHC 354 (Comm) where the Default clause in the Gafta 24 standard contract form was examined to allow for damages to be determined from an original port FOB price plus freight to calculate a default price.

This post is reproduced by kind permission Brian Perrott of HFW. It highlights the enforcement of a Gafta arbitration award handed down by Mr Justice Baker in Colossiens SA v Societe Difezi & Fils SARL & Ors [2021] EWHC 3559 (Comm).

Gafta have updated the Notices clause of variand clause 12.8 of Gafta Arbitration Rules No. 125

Arbitrators are sometimes faced with challenges to their jurisdiction. This was a challenge brought against a Gafta Appeal Award under s.67of the Arbitration Act 1996. The High Court held that the single Notice of Arbitration was valid in commencing arbitration on two contracts.

In this article I wrote for Gafta World, I highlight this challenge to a Gafta Appeal Award where the High Court dismissed Sellers’ appeal under five questions of law under s.69 of the Arbitration Act 1996 relating to the complex subject of a valid vessel nomination and valid substitution.

The increased digitalisation of commercial transactions has encouraged criminals to find new ways to defraud their victims and have created new issues to untangle in arbitration proceedings. In K v A [2019] EWHC 1118, a commodities case on appeal from a GAFTA arbitration award, various issues arising from hacked emails and the payment of over USD 1 million into a fraudulent account, were examined by the Court. The article is written and reproduced with kind permission from Clyde & Co.