The CJEU judgment in West Tankers created much controversy on the question of whether issuing an anti-suit injunction in order to protect the integrity of arbitration agreements should fall within the scope of the arbitration exclusion in Article 1 of the Brussels I Regulation (2001). The negative answer of the Court has been since challenged many times by academics and practitioners and new approaches were proposed during the drafting of the Brussels I Recast. Although the Court had not since considered whether the Recast modified the legal regime, in Gazprom the Advocate General gave his opinion on the basis that it had. The Court in Gazprom, however, saw the enforcement of an arbitral award ordering cessation of court proceedings to be a distinct issue which is not covered by the Brussels I Regulation. This article discusses first the applicability of the Brussels I Regulation to the enforcement of arbitral awards ordering anti-suit injunction as a final relief. Secondly, it examines anti-suit injunctions issued by Member State courts in the post-Recast era. It aims to reveal the extent to which an order for cessation of court proceedings (or an anti-suit injunction) to protect the integrity of arbitration agreements is permissible under existing law.

In its eagerly awaited judgment in Gazprom, the CJEU declined to follow the Opinion of Advocate General Wathelet that West Tankers is no longer good law. The West Tankers case decided that the courts of one Member State are precluded from granting antisuit injunctions directed at proceedings in the courts of another Member State, even if the proceedings in which the injunction is granted fall outside the scope of the Brussels Regulation by reason of the fact that they are concerned with arbitration. The Gazprom case confirms that West Tankers is still good law.

This article seeks to consider the EU's new approach to arbitration as set out in Recital 12 of the Brussels I Regulation (Recast). The article first considers the Court of Justice of the European Union's West Tankers decision and the foremost English authority applying that case (The Wadi Sudr) in order to provide some background to the problem which gave rise to Recital 12. Following this, the article goes on to consider whether Recital 12 does in fact act as a solution to the problem created by the West Tankers decision.