An arbitration case on the performance of a share purchase option agreement

Our litigation team represented a shareholder (the defendant) of a Fintech start-up in an arbitration with another shareholder (the claimant) regarding the performance of an option agreement.

The claimant requested the arbitrators to order the defendant to execute an option agreement for the purchase of shares in the company: either to sell the shares or to pay the contractually agreed compensation.

Our client defended against the claim by arguing that the plaintiff and its affiliates had breached the commitments entered into between the parties and others, which constituted grounds for suspending the execution of the option agreement.

The application for the suspension of the contract is complex. However, we were able to convince the arbitrators that there were grounds for suspending the performance of the contract in this case. On that basis, the claim against the client was dismissed in its entirety.

We are pleased to have defended the client’s interests in this complex dispute.