Legal Affairs

General information on the Court of Arbitration of the German Coffee Association at Hamburg Chamber of Commerce

Court of Arbitration of the German Coffee Association at Hamburg Chamber of Commerce

1. The organisation

Hamburg Chamber of Commerce will look back on 350 years of history in 2015.
Hamburg Chamber of Commerce is a public body currently representing more than 166 000 Hamburgian firms with more than 300 members of staff.
Hamburg Chamber of Commerce is situated in the very heart of the city, next to the Town Hall, and can be easily reached from Hamburg Airport.
Hamburg Chamber of Commerce offers attractive, well equipped premises suitable for all kind of conferences.
Hamburg Chamber of Commerce is in the arbitration business or decades (Court of Arbitration of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce dealing with commercial arbitration in general).
Hamburg Chamber of Commerce is in charge of the Court of Arbitration of the German Coffee Association at Hamburg Chamber of Commerce since 2006.
For more information on Hamburg Chamber of Commerce visit our website.

2. The Rules

The Rules of the Court of Arbitration of the German Coffee Association at Hamburg Chamber of Commerce (nicht barrierefrei, PDF-Datei · 191 KB) have been developed by the German Coffee Association in 1988 for principal arbitration only and are currently revised in cooperation with the German Coffee Association. The latest version of the Rules is effective since June 2014. The Court of Arbitration does not offer quality arbitration.
The Rules are in line with the 10th book of the German Code of Civil Procedure (CCP), which deals with arbitration. The CCP supplements the Rules whenever necessary (compare Article 24 (a) ECC).
The 10th book of the CCP is based on the Uncitral Model Law on International Arbitration, which has been enacted by more than 60 states worldwide.

3. The proceedings

  1. Step: submission of statement of claim including arbitration agreement (specification ofclaim made and statement of grounds claim is based on) ideally supported by evidence supporting the claim; appointment of an arbitrator including declaration of approval
  2. Step: the Court’s office calculates the costs of the proceedings and asks for a deposit
  3. Step: once the deposit is paid the statement of claim is forwarded to the defendant; the defendant is asked for submissions within maximum of 21 days and for appointment of his arbitrator; the party appointed arbitrators agree on a chairperson
  4. Step: generally speaking each party is given one more possibility to submit to the other parties submissions (deadline for each submission maximum of 4 weeks)
  5. Step: oral hearing
  6. Step: arbitral award
Additional notes:
The Rules do not offer any kind of appeal proceedings.
Whenever the parties have to seek recourse to the state court during or right after the proceedings before this Court of Arbitration, it is the Hamburg High Court (Oberlandesgericht Hamburg) which is in charge. Reasons for seeking recourse to the state court are e.g. challenging an arbitrator, enforcement of interim measures of protection, challenging an arbitral award.
Thanks to the “Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards” (so-called “New York Convention”) arbitral awards are enforceable (nearly) worldwide. The New York Convention has been ratified by 146 countries. Parties have to apply for recognition and enforcement to the state court of the country in which the award is relied upon.
Hamburg Chamber of Commerce publishes arbitral awards since 1975 in an anonymised form, if parties have not objected. Since 2002 arbitral awards are published on the Chamber’s website.

4. The arbitrators

Each party appoints an arbitrator. The party appointed arbitrators agree on a chairperson.
Arbitrators do not have to register with the Court of Arbitration or anything alike. 
The party nominated arbitrators only have to meet the requirements laid down in Article 4 No. 4 of the Rules. Generally speaking they have to be such persons who are owners, members of the board of directors, managing directors, personally liable partners, fully authorized employees of firms which are engaged in the coffee trade or in another international commodity trade or commodity brokerage and registered in a Commercial Register or Cooperative Societies Register of the Federal Republic of Germany or vested with a comparable legal status in another state. There are no such restrictions with regard to the chairperson.
Of course arbitrators have to be independent and impartial; they are in no way representatives of the parties.
During the whole proceedings a lawyer of Hamburg Chamber of Commerce is prepared to give legal advice to the arbitrators.
The Court of Arbitration’s Office administers the whole proceedings. That includes e.g. forwarding of submissions and organizing the oral hearing.

5. Costs

The Court of Arbitration has to cover its costs by charging fees.
Costs depend on the value in dispute.
There is a cost schedule included in the Rules. Thus costs can be calculated in advance.
Costs charged additionally are e.g. costs for couriers, travelling expenses.
Some examples:
Value in dispute
Fees
10 000 €  
1500,00 €
15 000 €   
2200,00 €
25 000 € 
3500,00 €
40 000 €     
5200,00 €
65 000 €   
7700,00 €
100 000 €
10 700,00 €
300 000 € 
25 000,00 €
1 000 000 €  
65 000,00 €
2 000 000 €  
94 000,00 €
Arbitrators might have to charge VAT on their share of the fees.

6. Duration of the proceedings

Generally speaking between 4 to 6 months (beginning: submission of statement of claim)

7. Cases a year

Generally speaking between 5 to 10 cases a year; however caseload has significantly increased during the last 2 years.

8. Language of the proceedings

The Court of Arbitration is prepared to run the proceedings in German and/or English; however the arbitral award is always rendered in German; a translation of the award is provided on the parties’ expenses.

9. Contact

Court of Arbitration of the German Coffee Association at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce
c/o Hamburg Chamber of Commerce
Petra Sandvoß / Christian Graf
Adolphsplatz 1
20457 Hamburg
Germany
Phone: 00 49 / 40 / 36 13 8 – 343 or – 344
Fax: 00 49 / 40 / 36 13 8 – 533
E-Mail: arbitration@hk24.de