The European Arbitration Review 2018

By virtue of the privity doctrine, the parties to an arbitration procedure are generally entitled to seek the annulment and recognition of the arbitral award.1 However, the question that remains is whether third parties are entitled to these legal actions. A recent High Court of Madrid decision dated 13 October 2016 (STSJ Madrid, and the judgement) 2.seems to conflict with previous case law and scholarly work dealing with third-party standing in annulment proceedings. This judgement offers a broader interpretation and indicates that third parties that have not been part of the arbitration proceedings could indeed be entitled to bring annulment actions as long as certain conditions are met.