Enforcement of international jurisdiction agreements: What to do in the event of an action from abroad despite an exclusive jurisdiction agreement to the contrary?

Procedure for the enforcement of international jurisdiction agreements: Article 31(2) Brussels I Regulation

A little-known regulation applicable in Europe to solve this problem is contained in the European Regulation (EU) No. 1215/2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, in short: EUGVVO. Article 31(2) of the EU Regulation states:

‘Without prejudice to Article 26, where a court of a Member State which has exclusive jurisdiction under an agreement referred to in Article 25 is seised, the court of the other Member State shall stay its proceedings until such time as the court seised on the basis of the agreement has declared that it has no jurisdiction under the agreement.

This regulation, which was created in 2015 to protect exclusive jurisdictions, proves to be extremely helpful in the situation described. The contractual partner who is confronted with a foreign lawsuit can have it established before its home court that only this court has jurisdiction. At the same time, he can use this action to have the dispute resolved before the competent German court, especially in the case of payment claims, if necessary by means of a negative declaratory action (you can find more information on this in my separate article).

The foreign court, which must be informed of this action in accordance with Article 31 (2) of the EU Regulation, must then immediately stay its own proceedings ex officio. This would stop the troublesome foreign action for the time being.

As soon as the German court has established its exclusive jurisdiction, the foreign court must subsequently declare that it has no jurisdiction. This would settle the unpleasant foreign legal dispute.