It was a dispute that arose between two of 12 beneficiaries of a Research & Development project funded by the EU Commission. The legal basis of the Research & Development project was the DESCA model consortium agreement. The DESCA model consortium agreement provides a dispute settlement clause. According to this clause any dispute shall be submitted to mediation in accordance with the WIPO Mediation Rules. If any such dispute has not been settled by mediation, the courts of Brussles shall have exclusive jurisdiction and the laws of Belgium shall be applicable. The two warring parties were Universities. Ostensibly it was about disputes in the project organization. In fact, there were massive personal disputes. Potential consequences of the dispute could have been as follows: The project could have been cancelled by the EU Commission. The project money could have been reclaimed by the EU Commission. The parties in dispute would not have received any project funding from the EU Commission in the future . The reputation of the two universities would have suffered. With the support of Michael Gross the parties achieved an acceptable settlement of their dispute. Therefore the settlement was very helpful, fast, not very expensive and Michael Gross was able to maintain his success rate of 95%.
Michael Gross is currently also active as an arbitrator in 3 arbitration proceedings.