Key Amendments To The ICC Rules 2026

In a long-awaited development, the International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”) has updated its Rules of Arbitration (“ICC Rules 2026”). The ICC Rules 2026 apply to any ICC arbitration commenced on or after 1 June 2026, unless the parties have agreed to submit to the Rules in effect on an earlier date.

This article sets out the key amendments introduced by the ICC Rules 2026. While some of the amendments introduce new procedural mechanisms, others formalize existing ICC practice or remove procedural requirements that had become less useful in practice.

1. DISCLOSURE: A NEW OBLIGATION FOR PARTIES

Under Article 12(5) of the ICC Rules 2026, parties are now required to submit, together with their Request for Arbitration (“RfA”), Answer, Request for Joinder or Answer to a Request for Joinder, a list of persons and entities which they believe prospective arbitrators and arbitrators should consider for the purposes of their conflict checks, together with the reasons for their inclusion.

Up until the promulgation of the ICC Rules 2026, the ICC Secretariat prepared a list of relevant entities on the basis of the RfA and the Answer, which was then provided to prospective arbitrators for the purposes of conducting their conflict checks.

Under the ICC Rules 2026, this responsibility now shifts to the parties: a fitting delegation given it is the parties that have the relevant information to hand. This should both standardize and streamline the arbitrator disclosure exercise and allow potential conflicts of interest to be identified at a relatively early stage of the proceedings, thereby reducing the risk of challenges arising later in the arbitration. Notwithstanding this new obligation on the parties, arbitrators remain responsible for making the necessary disclosures.

2. CONFIDENTIALITY: A NEW OBLIGATION FOR THE ARBITRATORS

Under the ICC Rules 2021, confidentiality of the arbitration proceedings was addressed in relatively general terms. Article 22(3) provided that upon the request of a party, the arbitral tribunal could make orders concerning the confidentiality of the arbitration proceedings or any other matters in connection with the arbitration.

The ICC Rules 2026 introduce an express confidentiality obligation on arbitrators (Article 12(8)) and tribunal secretaries (Article 44(2)). They are now required to keep confidential all matters relating to arbitration unless otherwise in the public domain, agreed by the parties, required by applicable law, or necessary to protect a legal right or comply with disclosure obligations.

Interestingly, the ICC Rules 2026 still do not impose an equivalent express confidentiality obligation on the parties. Confidentiality between the parties has therefore been left to party agreement or, where appropriate, determination by the arbitral tribunal under Article 23(3). This may reflect the view that parties are better served by confidentiality arrangements tailored to the circumstances of a particular dispute, rather than by a general confidentiality obligation that may not adequately reflect the requirements of each case. To ensure confidentiality is maintained, parties should consider expressly incorporating a confidentiality requirement within the first procedural order.

3. BEYOND THE TERMS OF REFERENCE: A GREATER ROLE FOR THE CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE

The ICC Rules 2021 were distinctive among the major international commercial arbitration rules in making the issuance of the Terms of Reference (“ToR”) a mandatory step. In an interesting development, the ICC Rules 2026 removed this requirement. This removal reflects the practices of most other institutional arbitral rules and is also consistent with the Expedited Procedure Provisions introduced to the ICC Arbitration Rules in 2017 (where no ToR was required). While arbitral tribunals are no longer required to issue ToR, they retain the discretion to establish them where appropriate as a useful case management tool.

The removal of this requirement is welcome, given that the preparation and issuance of the ToR have, over the years, proven to be burdensome and time-consuming. In many cases, deployment of the ToR unnecessarily lengthened proceedings and increased costs of the arbitration, while providing little practical assistance in resolving the matters in dispute. RfAs and Answers, together with the first Case Management Conference (“CMC”), have become increasingly detailed and effectively rendered the ToR process redundant. In this respect, ICC Expedited Procedure arbitrations, which have operated without mandatory ToR since 2017, have demonstrated that proceedings can function without them and without material impairment to their integrity.

Interestingly, the CMC remains mandatory and must be held within 30 days of the transmission of the file to the arbitral tribunal. In practice, the CMC has become the central procedural step for structuring the proceedings and pursuant to Article 25 of the ICC Rules 2026, has now become the cut-off point for the introduction of new claims. Parties must now ensure their respective positions are sufficiently particularized within either the RfA and/or Answer, to ensure no adverse cost consequences are levied against the party seeking to introduce new claims.

4. EARLY DETERMINATION: FROM ICC PRACTICE TO AN EXPRESS PROCEDURAL TOOL

While Early Determination was already provided for in the Note to Parties and Arbitral Tribunals on the Conduct of the Arbitration dated 2017, the ICC Rules 2026 have now expressly incorporated this mechanism within Article 30, thereby removing any doubt as to the arbitral tribunal’s power to use this tool in ICC arbitrations.

Such measure allows parties to apply to arbitral tribunals for the early determination of one or more claims or defenses manifestly without merit or manifestly outside the tribunal’s jurisdiction. For the mechanism to serve its intended purpose, parties are expected to submit their applications as soon as possible after becoming aware of the relevant claims or defenses, and arbitral tribunals are expected to decide on such applications as promptly as possible¹.

By expressly incorporating the concept of Early Determination, the ICC Rules 2026 take a further step towards enhancing the procedural efficiency of arbitrations conducted under the ICC’s auspices.

Footnote

1 ICC, Unveiling the 2026 ICC Arbitration Rules, part 5: Early determination, 27 May 2026 (available here).

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