Amending and explaining an Arbitration Award

Legal situation: My company entered into a contract to purchase raw materials for manufacturing household appliances. The contracting company has violated its payment obligation, so both parties have resolved the dispute through arbitration under the contract’s arbitration terms. After that, in the arbitration award, I found an error in the calculation of the late payment interest. Can I request the arbitrator to review this matter and provide us with an explanation? Thank you.

FDVN’s Opinion:

Thank you for reaching out to FDVN Law Firm (FDVN) with your inquiry. After reviewing the relevant legal provisions, FDVN has some further points to discuss as follows:

Correction and explanation of awards and additional awards are stipulated in Article 63 of Law on Commercial Arbitration 2010 as follows:

“1. Within 30 days after receiving an award, unless otherwise agreed by the parties, a party may request the arbitration council to correct obvious spelling errors or erroneous or incorrectly calculated data in the award but shall immediately notify the other party thereof. If the arbitration council considers this request reasonable, it shall correct the errors within 30 days after receiving the request.

2. Within 30 days after receiving an award, unless otherwise agreed by the parties, a party may request the arbitration council to explain details of the award but shall immediately notify the other party thereof. If the arbitration council considers this request reasonable, it shall give an explanation within 30 days after receiving the request. Such explanation constitutes part of the award.

3. Within 30 days after issuing an award, the arbitration council may on its own initiative correct errors specified in Clause 1 of this Article and shall immediately notify such to the parties.

4. Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, within 30 days after receiving an award, a party may request the arbitration council to issue an additional award for the requirements presented in the course of proceedings but not recorded in the award and shall immediately notify such to the other party. If the arbitration council considers such request reasonable, it shall issue an additional award within 45 days after receiving the request.

5. When necessary, the arbitration council may extend the time limits for correction or explanation of awards or issuance of additional awards specified in Clauses I. 2 and 4 of this Article.”

As a result, you are allowed to request the Arbitration Council to amend the arbitration award when the errors in spelling, numerical mistakes, or miscalculations are discovered and requested for clarification. However, the request must be made within 30 days from the date of receiving the arbitration award. The Arbitration Council will consider these requests and will make corrections, explanations within 30 days (or extend if necessary) if deemed reasonable.

This is the legal advice provided by FDVN based on the research of relevant legal provisions. We hope this advice will be helpful to you.

By Đặng Vũ Đức – FDVN Law Firm