EDF and Areva initiated arbitration proceedings before the International Chamber of Commerce to resolve disputes related to the production of nuclear-based electricity in France. These disputes were linked to Framatome’s acquisition contract concluded in 2017 and commercial relationships between EDF and Areva prior to this acquisition.

The legal advisors of Areva and Framatome instructed NERA to conduct an economic evaluation of EDF’s alleged lost profits and present conclusions to the arbitral tribunal. In this context, the NERA team critically reviewed the reliability and robustness of the evaluations conducted by the economists instructed by EDF. These evaluations concerned the portfolio of EDF activities impacted by the disputes (including the wholesale market, the retail market, and regulated access to historical nuclear energy).

The NERA team included Associate Director Dr. Alexandre Carbonnel, who testified before the arbitral tribunal; Managing Director Tomas Haug; Associate Director Dominik Huebler; Senior Consultants Dr. Rasmus Jorgensen, Dr. Adjmal Sirak, and Lorenz Wieshammer; Consultants Dr. Philippe Fromenteau and Philipp Kroeger; and Analysts Florian Deuflhard, Leonie Janisch, and Alisa Smaghina.

On 29 June 2021, EDF and Areva entered a settlement agreement that, alongside the arbitral awards issued on the same day, ended the proceedings and disputes that were the subject of the arbitration.

NERA experts regularly intervene in the context of commercial disputes to conduct economic evaluations and damage estimations. Our clients value our ability to build teams combining an expertise in terms of sophisticated economic analyses and broad sectoral knowledge, in the energy sector and in other sectors.