Arbitration is a form of justice recognized and guaranteed by law in which private arbitrators arrive at a ruling based on a formal legal procedure with associated legal documents. The parties can agree to submit their conflict to arbitration. This means they undertake to submit their dispute to arbitrators, who give a ruling on the case that is binding for the parties involved.

An arbitration ruling has the same force of law as a ‘normal’ ruling. After the arbitrators have drawn up and signed the ruling, it is registered with the court. After that, one of the parties can engage a bailiff, who can for example seize the property of the other party in order to enforce implementation of the ruling. Arbitration is an internationally recognized form of conflict resolution. Many countries have signed the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.

The big advantage of arbitration compared with the regular courts is that the arbitrators are specialized; in the case of SGOA, they are specialized in problems that are specific to the ICT sector. Consequently, arbitration boards are multidisciplinary. At SGOA, they consist of top-class lawyers with considerable experience of procedural law and ICT conflicts on the one hand, and leading ICT experts with many years of experience with information technology on the other hand.

SGOA is known for the speed with which it can carry out arbitration. It has short completion times of no more than three to four weeks. The sessions of the arbitration board chosen by the parties involved can take place in the Netherlands or abroad, at a time of their choosing. In urgent cases, arbitration can be arranged in a matter of days. That also applies to disputes where a temporary measure needs to be taken. This is far from uncommon in ICT projects where there cannot be any interruption to progress but at the same time such a measure is needed. These cases are usually handled in summary arbitral proceedings. Summary arbitral proceedings are similar to normal arbitration, except that the proceedings can be completed in only a few days.

SGOA (Stichting Geschillenoplossing Automatisering, or ‘foundation for the resolution of ICT disputes’) offers arbitration among its services. The rules for instituting and conducting arbitration are set out in SGOA's 2021 Arbitration Regulations. A precondition for starting arbitration via SGOA is that the parties to the dispute have entered into a written agreement in which it has been agreed that any disputes that need resolving will be submitted to SGOA for arbitration. This agreement is termed the arbitration agreement.

In addition to the standard arbitration proceedings, SGOA (Stichting Geschillenoplossing Automatisering, or ‘foundation for the resolution of ICT disputes’) offers the option of summary arbitral proceedings. Summary arbitral proceedings take only a short time and are aimed at reaching a ruling relatively quickly regarding an urgent matter in which a decision is required in short order. You can consider requesting a provisional arrangement through summary arbitral proceedings if you are unable to wait for the case to be dealt with in standard arbitration proceedings. You will find a basic model below to help you in compiling an application.