Procedural Posture

This judgment of the French Cour de cassation (First Civil Chamber) dismisses an appeal lodged by the Republic of Guinea and its telecommunications regulatory authority (ARPT). The appeal challenged a 7 September 2021 decision of the Paris Court of Appeal, which had rejected their application to set aside an ICC arbitral award rendered against them on 18 July 2019 in a dispute with Global Voice Group (GVG).

Grounds of Appeal and Parties' Arguments

The appellants' sole ground for appeal was that the recognition and enforcement of the award would violate international public policy, alleging that the underlying partnership agreement with GVG was procured through corruption. They argued that the Court of Appeal erred by: (1) dismissing as irrelevant certain evidence of corruption, which they contended was linked to the core agreement, even if it directly pertained to a later amendment not enforced by the arbitral tribunal; and (2) failing to properly investigate their claim that the direct award of the contract to GVG circumvented Guinean public procurement laws, thereby constituting a serious indicator of corruption. The appellants contended the lower court misapplied the "imperious urgency" exception under Guinean law.

The Court's Decision and Reasoning

The Cour de cassation rejected the appeal in its entirety. The Court held that the Paris Court of Appeal had legally justified its decision on both points. First, the Court found that the lower court was correct to deem evidence related to a specific contract amendment (Avenant n° 3) as inoperative, given that the arbitral tribunal's final award was not based on that amendment. Therefore, any alleged corruption concerning it was not pertinent to the validity of the award itself.

Second, the Court affirmed that the Court of Appeal, in its sovereign assessment of the evidence, had correctly determined that Guinean law permitted direct-award contracts in situations of "imperious urgency." The lower court had noted that this procedure was also used for GVG's competitor and that the appellants failed to demonstrate that a public tender process was required under the specific circumstances. The Cour de cassation concluded that the Court of Appeal was not obligated to conduct further inquiries and that its reasoning was free from any mischaracterization ("dénaturation") of the law or facts.

Disposition

Consequently, the Cour de cassation dismissed the appeal, upheld the judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal, and ordered the Republic of Guinea and ARPT to pay costs and a sum of €3,000 to GVG pursuant to Article 700 of the French Code of Civil Procedure.