South Korea secured the annulment of an investor-state arbitration award in a long-running dispute with Elliott Management, sending the case back to arbitration.

The Ministry of Justice said Monday that a British court had upheld South Korea’s lawsuit to annul an arbitral award, overturning a ruling that had found the government liable for more than 100 million, or roughly 69-thousand U.S. dollars, in damages.

The Ministry of Justice said on Monday that the government won a case filed with a British court seeking to reverse an arbitration court’s order to pay over 100 million dollars in damages to Elliott.

The dispute stemmed from the 2015 merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, which Elliott, as a shareholder of Samsung C&T, opposed and filed an investor-state dispute settlement against, claiming the Seoul government’s undue intervention caused losses.

In June 2023, the Permanent Court of Arbitration partially recognized Seoul’s liability and ordered compensation, which later grew to around 160 billion won, including interest.

Although a lower court dismissed Seoul’s annulment request in 2024, the Court of Appeal in July 2025 overturned that decision and remanded the case to the High Court for a full review, which ultimately ruled in favor of the South Korean government.