Elliott Demanded 'Dismissal of Korean Government ISDS Cancellation Lawsuit' but Was Rejected

The Ministry of Justice announced on the 19th that the UK court handling the cancellation lawsuit of the 130 billion won 'Elliott Award' rejected Elliott's request to dismiss the Korean government's application to cancel the arbitration award.

Through a press release, the Ministry of Justice stated, "The UK court's decision on Elliott's application to dismiss the international investment dispute (ISDS) award cancellation lawsuit was delivered around 9 p.m. on the 18th."

According to the Ministry of Justice, on August 12, Elliott requested the UK court to dismiss the cancellation lawsuit without further proceedings, arguing that the grounds for the Korean government's cancellation lawsuit were unrelated to the jurisdictional requirements under the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and that there was no chance of winning.

However, the UK court dismissed Elliott's dismissal application entirely, stating that the jurisdictional issue cited by the Korean government as grounds for the cancellation lawsuit is an important matter concerning the interpretation of the Korea-US FTA, and that the main issues of the lawsuit must be judged after oral hearings rather than by unilateral assumptions.

Furthermore, the court described Elliott's dismissal application as "overly ambitious" and ordered Elliott to pay ?26,500 (approximately 44 million won, based on 1 pound = 1,677 won), which is about 50% of the litigation costs incurred by the Korean government.

Earlier in June, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) partially accepted the claims of the US-based hedge fund Elliott that the Korean government violated the Korea-US FTA during the merger process of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, ordering the Korean government to pay $53,586,931 (approximately 69 billion won, based on 1 dollar = 1,288 won) plus delayed interest.

Including the principal compensation, delayed interest, and legal fees, the total amount the government must pay as of the award date is approximately 138.9 billion won.

In July, the government filed a cancellation lawsuit in the UK court, arguing that recognizing the National Pension Service's exercise of voting rights as a government action violated the jurisdictional requirements of the Korea-US FTA.

The Ministry of Justice stated, "The government will do its best to ensure that not a single won of taxpayers' money is wasted in the upcoming cancellation lawsuit proceedings in the UK court," and added, "We will also transparently inform the public about the progress of the cancellation lawsuit."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.