South Korea Loses Final International Investment Dispute Against Elliott, Ordered to Pay W153 Billion

The South Korean government announced that it has decided to accept the ruling on October 28, following its defeat in the remanded arbitration of its international investment dispute with the U.S. private equity fund Elliott.

As a result, the government is required to pay Elliott approximately 153 billion won, including delayed interest.

The dispute began in 2018 when Elliott filed a lawsuit claiming that the government had unfairly intervened in the National Pension Service's exercise of voting rights during the 2015 merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, causing financial damage.

In June 2023, the international arbitral tribunal acknowledged the government's liability for damages and ordered South Korea to pay Elliott 48.49 million dollars.

In response, the government filed a lawsuit in a British court to annul the ruling, arguing that the National Pension Service's exercise of voting rights did not constitute a government measure and therefore fell outside the arbitral tribunal's jurisdiction. In July of last year, the UK Court of Appeals accepted the government's appeal and remanded the case back to the court of first instance.

While the first instance of the remand partially canceled the original arbitration award by accepting the government's argument that the National Pension Service cannot be viewed as a state organ, the remanded arbitral tribunal that took over the case on September 30 re-recognized the causal relationship between the government's actions and Elliott's damages, ruling that the government holds liability for compensation.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.