JEDDAH, 14 August 2007 — The Arabian Investment Court of the Arab League is set to hold a hearing on Aug. 21 on the petition lodged by Tanmia for Management and Marketing Consultants, a Saudi company, against the Tunisian government for breach of contract that was entered into between the two parties on July 16, 1999.
The petitioner (Tanmia) is suing the respondent/defendant (Tunisian government) for $79 million in damages, which represents the loss, over the respondent’s unilateral termination of the contract for the broadcasting rights of the Mediterranean Games “Tunisia 2001” and all its related activities.
As the case drags on for eight years now, Adel bin Saleh Almaddah, president of Tanmia, said he is “committed to reaching an Arabian solution.”
He said the lawsuit put Arab investment ties in focus and faces serious challenges, hence “there must be certain mechanisms to encourage and push the investment forward.” He noted that there should be laws to protect the Arabian investment before the foreign counterpart.
Almaddah said “justice and law assert that Tanmia must be compensated fairly for the damages and loss of profit based on facts should the contract had been executed as stipulated by Arab legislations and the Tunisian Code of Obligations and Contracts, as well as Chapter 277 of the Tunisian Code of Obligations and Contracts.
He said the respondent/defendant, represented by the district attorney, did not object to the demands of Tanmia, that, in effect, constituted an acknowledgement.
Almaddah further said “Tanmia’s claims for compensation are lawful as stipulated in article 10, paragraph 2 of the United Convention for Arab capital investment in the Arab countries, which stipulates that the value of compensation should be equal to the harm and damage caused to the Arabian investor depending on the type and volume of damages, and article 11, paragraph 1, which mandates that compensation should be in cash if the investment could not be returned to its original state before the damage occurred.”
He pointed out that the respondent/defendant acted in bad faith from the very beginning when it concealed to Tanmia its contract with Tunis Air on the same subject four months before their deal, that expressly mentioned “the Tunisian government has not entered into contract of same subject with any other party.”
Tanmia tried to resolve the issue amicably as the respondent admitted the violation and promised to remedy it.
However, ensuing mediations proved futile as the respondent did not act positively to correct the issue.
Hence, Tanmia lodged a claim at the Arabian Investment Court, the first case to be taken up by the court.
It was initially dismissed, but the petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration, whose hearing has been reset thrice since 2006.