The article analyses the arbitrability of antitrust claims. A detailed discussion of US, non-European and EU case-law, and academic literature provides an overview of the key restrictions to the arbitrability of antitrust claims. In the first section, authors analyse the rationale behind non-arbitrability of antitrust claims. Moreover, by the analysis of the evolution of the legal doctrine the authors show that arbitrability of competition law disputes per se is no longer being questioned in international commercial arbitration. Civil law consequences deriving from the infringement of competition law between individual parties may be referred to the international commercial arbitration. Next, the article provides in-depth analysis of the case-law of US courts, the CJEU, EU Member States courts, which dealt with the questions of arbitrability of antitrust claims. The case-law eliminates the worries of the regulatory authorities that imperative competition laws will not be obeyed by arbitrators as arbitration awards may be reviewed and set aside or unenforced where appropriate. Finally, Lithuanian Law on Commercial Arbitration is discussed drawing attention to the need to observe the trends of international commercial arbitration and follow aforementioned CJEU case-law which recognizes arbitrability of antitrust claims and sets particular obligations towards national courts when recognizing and enforcing arbitral awards.
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