On April 9, 2015 an ICSID - UNCITRAL tribunal issued a unanimous award on damages in favor of our clients, GDF Suez, Vivendi, Aguas de Barcelona and AWG, in a long-running dispute related to its water and wastewater concession in Argentina. The US$405 million award is the largest award issued by an ICSID tribunal against the Argentine government to date.

In 1993, as part of its privatization program, the Argentine government granted our clients a contract for a water and wastewater concession the city of Buenos Aires. The Aguas Argentinas concession, which had serviced more than 8 million inhabitants prior to the breach, was one of the largest water concessions in the world. Starting in 2002, the Argentine government breached its commitments related to that investment. Our clients brought a claim against the government for damages incurred, pursuant to the France-Argentina, Spain-Argentina, and UK-Argentina bilateral investment treaties (the BITs). The tribunal previously issued a decision on liability in 2010, concluding that the Argentine government had breached its obligations under the BITs by failing to revise its tariff according to the legal framework of the Concession and in pursuing the forced renegotiation of the concession contract. The tribunal decided that quantum would be determined in a separate phase of the case with the help of an independent expert.

The case also received notoriety because the tribunal was the first to accept amicus curiae submissions in the ICSID system. At the time, the rules were silent on this procedure, but one year later, in 2006, ICSID amended its rules to specifically allow for amicus curiae submissions.

The Freshfields team was led by partners Nigel Blackaby in Washington, DC, and Noiana Marigo in New York, with associates Lauren Friedman and Sofía Klot in New York, associate Maria Julia Milesi in Washington, DC, and counsel Lluis Paradell in Rome.

The case is Suez, Sociedad General de Aguas de Barcelona S.A. and Vivendi Universal S.A v. Argentine Republic (ICSID Case No. ARB/03/19). Freshfields also represents Suez and Aguas de Barcelona  in a related ICSID arbitration against Argentina over a water concession in Santa Fe, Argentina, which remains pending.