Moroccan Firms Face High Costs in International Arbitration Disputes

"The foreign partners of Moroccan companies systematically refuse Moroccan courts for the settlement of commercial disputes," says Hicham Zegrary, Secretary General of the Arbitration Court of the International Center for Mediation and Arbitration of Casablanca (CIMAC). According to L’Économiste, foreign companies insert into the contracts they sign with their Moroccan partners a clause that allows them to resort to international arbitration courts in Paris, Geneva or elsewhere in the event of a dispute. However, "Moroccan companies are not well enough prepared to protect themselves against the potential dangers of an arbitration clause that is not in their favor," says Zegrary.

Although there are no official statistics (the disputes heard in arbitration are nevertheless confidential), some data indicate that many Moroccan companies have been ordered to pay large sums of money to foreign companies. More than half of the 75 disputes arbitrated in the competent international bodies, between 2014 and 2015, proved unfavorable to the Moroccan party.

Laurent Lévy, President of CIMAC, indicates the way of salvation for Moroccan companies. "If the balance of power allows them to demand it, the contract can provide for Moroccan law as the applicable law, and this will be a way to rebalance the game to bring foreign companies onto their legal ground, which they know better than anyone else," he recommends.