Arbitration Centre of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry ("CAC").

The CAC has its headquarters at the offices of the Portuguese Centre of Commerce and Industry, located at Rua das Portas de Santo Antão, No. 89, in Lisbon.

The CAC operates within the framework of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry. However, it functions with administrative and financial autonomy, having its own Management, which is separate from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Commercial Arbitration Centre Board (Centre's Board), is appointed by the Chamber of Commerce Management, and is composed of nine members: a Chairman, two Vice-Chairmen and six Members, all of whom must be persons of recognized merit and good standing, with technical and personal qualifications required for the exercise of the Board's responsibilities. It also has a secretariat, coordinated by a Secretary-General, and technical and administrative staff.

The parties are free to choose the arbitrators. Nevertheless, whenever any of the parties does not appoint an arbitrator, or when the parties do not reach an agreement on the arbitrator who should be appointed the Chairman of the Centre is required to appoint such arbitrator. The Chairman of the CAC normally chooses an arbitrator from the list available on the CAC website and approved by the Centre's Board but it is not mandatory. The Chairman may appoint someone not on the list, especially if it does not include persons with the qualifications required by the specific features of the dispute in question. In international arbitrations, the Chairman takes into account the possible convenience of appointing an arbitrator of a different nationality to that of the parties.

The parties are free to choose the place of arbitration. However, in default of any such agreement, the place of arbitration shall be determined by the tribunal having regard to the circumstances of the case. Notwithstanding the previous, the arbitral tribunal may, on its own initiative or at the request of either party, meet at any place it considers appropriate to hold one or more hearings, to allow the production of any evidence, or to deliberate.

Each request to commence an arbitration under CAC must be accompanied by a filing fee of EUR 2,500. Such payment is non-refundable and shall be credited to the claimant's portion of the advance on costs.

The arbitration costs comprise the arbitrators' fees and expenses, the administrative costs of the proceedings and the expenses incurred with evidence production. It is the tribunal's responsibility unless otherwise agreed by the parties, to define the arbitration costs. In such a scenario (1 arbitrator, amount in dispute = USD 1 million, and assuming that this is not a fast track arbitration)the average cost of an arbitration is: € 39,744.38 (approx. USD 45,876.94 ) - € 22,687.50 arbitrators' fees, € 9,625.00 administrative costs and € 7,431.88 VAT 23%.

In such a scenario (3 arbitrators, amount in dispute = USD 10 million, and assuming that this is not a fast track arbitration) the average cost of an arbitration is: € 207,716.25 (aprox. USD 239,766.87 ) - € 151,875.00 arbitrators' fees, € 17,000.00 administrative costs and € 38,841.25 VAT 23%.

In such a scenario (3 arbitrators, amount in dispute = USD 100 million, and assuming that this is not a fast track arbitration) the average cost of an arbitration is: € 512,756.25 (aprox. $ 591,874.54 ) - € 370,875.00 arbitrators' fees, € 46,000.00 administrative costs and € 95,881.25 VAT 23%.

Advances on costs are paid by each party before the arbitral tribunal is appointed, and within 10 days of notification by the Secretariat. When a request for an advance on costs has not been complied with, the Secretariat may establish a new time limit. If the non-compliance situation persists, the Secretariat may direct the other party to effect a substitute payment to allow the arbitration to proceed within 10 days. If the advance on costs is not complied by the Claimant, the arbitration shall not proceed and consequently, the arbitral proceedings shall be deemed to have terminated. If it is the respondent that has failed to pay, the arbitration shall proceed, and the arbitral tribunal may determine inadmissibility of the answer to the request. When an advance on costs requested to cover the cost of the production of evidence has not been complied with, the tribunal shall not proceed with such measure. Additionally, non-compliance of any subsequent advance on costs shall cause the arbitral proceedings to be suspended (when the default is by the claimant). When the default situation is caused by the respondent, the tribunal may ban the respondent from taking part in the production of evidence or from submitting statements. Where counterclaims are submitted by the respondent the Secretariat may, upon request by any of the parties, fix separate advances on costs for each claim or counterclaims.

After the constitution of the arbitral tribunal, the parties are summoned for a preliminary hearing. This hearing is the first contact between the arbitral tribunal and the parties, and serves for the tribunal to decide after consultation with the parties, on a set of aspects related to the proceedings, such as the issues to be decided, the provisional procedural timetable, the pleadings to be presented, the means of evidence, the rules and time limits for the production of evidence or the value of the arbitration.

Portuguese and English.

The main point of contact for the parties within the Arbitration Centre is the Secretariat.

The parties are free to agree on the language or languages to be used in the arbitral proceedings. Failing such agreement, the language or languages of the proceedings shall be decided by the arbitral tribunal.

If any of the arbitrators turn down the appointment, dies, withdraws, is permanently prevented from performing duties or terminates his or her duties following a decision taken by the Chairman of the Centre or if for any other reason, the appointment is voided, such arbitrator shall be replaced, according to the rules applicable to its appointment. Exceptionally, the Chairman of the Centre may, after hearing the parties and the tribunal, replace an arbitrator on his or her initiative, if the arbitrator does not perform his or her duties in accordance with the CAC rules and the CAC Code of Ethics.

"Where there are multiple parties, the claimants as a group and the respondents as a group shall each be deemed to constitute a party for the purposes of appointment of arbitrators. When the arbitral tribunal consists of three arbitrators, if the claimants or respondents fail to agree on the choice of arbitrator, such appointment shall be made by the Chairman of the Centre. In the latter case, if the claimants or respondents who failed to agree on the choice of arbitrator have conflicting interests in relation to the substance of the dispute, the Chairman of the Centre may, if considered justified to ensure equality between parties, further appoint all the arbitrators and, among them, the presiding arbitrator, and in such case the appointment meanwhile made by one of the parties shall become void. In what concerns joinders to the proceedings, third parties may be allowed to intervene in the arbitral proceedings if (i) all the parties are bound by the same arbitration agreement; and (ii) in case some are bound by another arbitration agreement compatible with the arbitration agreement on which the Request for Arbitration is based (provided that the circumstances of the case show that, at the time of the conclusion of both arbitration agreements, all the parties accepted that the same arbitration proceedings could take place with the presence of all the parties).

Before the initiation of the arbitral proceedings, the Tribunal summons the parties for a preliminary hearing. After said hearing, the tribunal, having consulted the parties decide, among other things, whether to hold hearings, or whether the proceedings shall be conducted merely on the basis of documents and other means of evidence. The tribunal shall, however, hold a hearing for the production of evidence whenever one of the parties so requests.

It is the arbitral tribunal's power to determine the admissibility, relevance, and value of any evidence produced or to be produced. Actually, as referred to in question no. 10, after having heard the parties, the tribunal, at the preliminary hearing sets the means of evidence admissible. Therefore, the tribunal has a wide discretion in the exercise of such power since it is not bound, by default, by the rules of civil procedure on the admissibility of evidence that apply to state court proceedings. Bearing this in mind, common evidence-taking practices in the CAC include documentary, testimonial, and expert evidence.

According to CAC statistics, the average duration of arbitral proceedings is around 15 months.

Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, the final award shall be rendered within two months from the closing of the proceedings. Nevertheless, the parties may agree to an extension or on a suspension of that time limit.

Upon agreement of the parties, the time frame for rendering the award may be extended.

Unless expressly agreed otherwise, acceptance of the CAC rules involves granting the arbitral tribunal with the power to issue interim measures and preliminary orders (ex-part measures). There is a competing jurisdiction of the judicial courts with regard to interim measures. The Portuguese Voluntary Arbitration Law provides that judicial courts have the power to issue interim measures both prior to or during the arbitral proceedings.

Until the arbitral tribunal is constituted, and unless otherwise expressly agreed, any of the parties may request urgent interim measures (but not preliminary orders) to be issued by an emergency arbitrator appointed by the Chairman of the Centre. There are specific Rules on Emergency Arbitrators included in Appendix 1 of the CAC Rules.

Likewise emergency arbitrators, there are specific rules governing expedited proceedings, designated "Fast Track Arbitration Rules", adopted in March of 2016. Under the Fast Track Arbitration Rules, the award shall be rendered in a time limit of 30 days starting from the last session of the final hearing. It should be highlighted that the global time limit for the duration of the arbitration proceedings is of 6 months, starting from the date of the constitution of the arbitral tribunal.

There is no scrutiny of the award by any entity. Nonetheless, on its own initiative or upon request by any of the parties submitted in the thirty days following notification of the arbitral award, the arbitral tribunal may correct material errors or interpret any obscure or ambiguous point in the award.

Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, it is the arbitral tribunal's responsibility to decide the method of apportioning the arbitration costs, having regard to all the circumstances of the case. These include the amount of dismissed claims and the behavior of the parties during the proceedings.

"The challenge of an arbitral award may only take the form of an annulment request, which shall be submitted to the competent state court. The Portuguese Arbitration Law, like the New York Convention, sets narrow grounds to set aside the award, namely: a) if the party making the request demonstrates that: (i) one party to the arbitration agreement was affected by incapacity or that the agreement is invalid in accordance to the law to which the parties have subjected it or, failing any indication thereon, under the law of the country where the award was rendered; (ii) some of the fundamental principles (such as due process) were infringed and it had a decisive influence on the resolution of the dispute; (iii) the judgment has been issued on a dispute not covered by the arbitration agreement or contains decisions that go beyond the arbitration agreement; (iv) the composition of the arbitral tribunal or the arbitration procedure were not in accordance with the agreement of the parties, unless this agreement conflicts with a provision of the PAL from which the parties cannot derogate or, in the absence of such an agreement, which has not complied with the PAL and, in any case, that this disagreement had a decisive influence on the resolution of the dispute; (v) the arbitral tribunal ordered a higher amount or a different object of the request, knew of issues that it shouldn't take a decision on, or did not decide on questions that it had to consider; (vi) the judgment was rendered in violation of the requirements established for the award (in written form, signed and reasoned); (vii) the judgment was notified to the parties after the maximum deadline for such purpose; or b) If the court finds that: (i) The subject-matter of the dispute is not capable of settlement by arbitration under Portuguese law; or (ii) The content of the award offends the principles of the international public order of the Portuguese State.

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