White & Case secures a second total victory for Georgia in the long-running dispute concerning the Anaklia Port project

On 30 July 2025, an ICSID tribunal chaired by Bernard Hanotiau and including Klaus Sachs and Charles Poncet as co-arbitrators issued an award unanimously dismissing all claims brought by Dutch businessman Bob Meijer against Georgia under the Georgia-Netherlands BIT.

The dispute concerned Bob Meijer's 6.06% indirect shareholding interest in the Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC), a Georgian company which concluded in 2016 an investment agreement with Georgia for the development and operation of a deep-sea port in the town of Anaklia, on Georgia's Black Sea coast. Georgia terminated the investment agreement in January 2020 after ADC—under the control of Georgian businessmen Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze—had failed to secure financing for the project despite Georgia agreeing to multiple extensions of ADC's financing deadlines. In addition to his claims concerning the Anaklia Port project, Mr. Meijer brought claims in connection with his 6.06% indirect shareholding interest in Anaklia City JSC, another Georgian company which was established to apply for the right to establish a free industrial zone near the Anaklia Port.

Mr. Meijer initiated ICSID arbitration proceedings against Georgia in July 2020, claiming that the termination of the investment agreement and related government measures constituted breaches of Georgia's obligations under the Netherlands-Georgia BIT and seeking compensation of nearly US$70 million, commensurate with his shareholding interest in ADC.  Mr. Meijer also claimed that measures taken in connection with the planned free industrial zone near the Anaklia Port also constituted alleged breaches of Georgia's treaty obligation.

In its award, the ICSID tribunal unanimously dismissed Mr. Meijer's claims in their entirety.  The tribunal agreed with Georgia that Mr. Meijer's investment in Anaklia City JSC did not constitute a protected investment under the BIT and the ICSID Convention, because Anaklia City JSC had not secured the right to develop a free industrial zone adjacent to the Anaklia Port. The tribunal also found that Georgia did not breach any of its treaty obligations with respect to Mr. Meijer's investment in the Anaklia Port project.  Specifically, the tribunal found that Georgia was well within its rights to terminate the investment agreement on the basis of ADC's failure to secure financing for the Anaklia Port and was not in any way responsible for ADC's contractual failures.  The tribunal awarded Georgia all of its fees and arbitration costs in the ICSID arbitration, amounting to US$6.5 million.

This ICSID award comes exactly one year after an ICC tribunal (chaired by Stephen Drymer and including Jean Kalicki and Charles Adams) dismissed, by majority, all of ADC's claims under the investment agreement governed by Georgian law. While the ICSID tribunal stopped short of giving binding effect to the ICC award under the doctrine of collateral estoppel, it noted that "in the absence of compelling circumstances to the contrary, investment treaty tribunals have elected to give deference to the findings of prior commercial awards" and made findings that were in all respects entirely consistent with the findings of the ICC tribunal.  Both tribunals were presented with the same documentary evidence and the same witness testimony, including testimony from Messrs. Khazaradze and Japaridze, as well as other ADC representatives.

This award will hopefully mark the end of a long-running dispute which was highly mediatized and politicized in Georgia and involved unwarranted and completely debunked allegations of a supposed government conspiracy to kill the Anaklia Port project.

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