Bilateral disputes
A bilateral dispute is a dispute arising between two companies regarding an alleged breach of the Principles of Good Practice.
What is the procedure?
In case of a bilateral dispute, companies have the following options to solve their disputes:
- Commercial track: the complainant may decide to take the issue to a higher level within the commercial hierarchy of the company allegedly in breach
- Contract options: the complainant may resort to any mechanisms of dispute resolution foreseen by the contract
- Internal dispute resolution: the complainant may resort to the internal dispute resolution body of the company allegedly in breach
- Mediation or arbitration: parties may choose by mutual agreement to resort to an independent third party to solve their dispute either through a non-binding solution (mediation) or a binding decision (arbitration)
- Jurisdictional methods: The complainant may choose to resort to the ordinary jurisdictional methods according to national rules and regulations
The choice of the dispute resolution mechanism lies with the complaining operator except for mediation and arbitration where mutual agreement is required or when otherwise stipulated by law.
A list of relevant national mediation and arbitration mechanisms will shortly be available on the website as reference for companies.
What to do?
Use one of the five dispute resolution mechanisms listed above.