Waste Management, Inc. v. United Mexican States

In 1998, USA Waste Services, Inc. (now Waste Management, Inc.), a U.S. waste disposal company, filed claims against Mexico under the ICSID Additional Facility Rules alleging breaches of NAFTA Articles 1105 and 1110. The notice of arbitration asserted that the State of Guerrero and the municipality of Acapulco granted a 15-year concession to USA Waste's Mexican subsidiary, Acaverde, in 1995 for public waste management services (street cleaning, landfilling, etc.), but failed to comply with payment and other obligations set forth in the concession agreement despite full performance by Acaverde. It also asserted that Banobras, a Mexican bank that had issued an unconditional guarantee for the payment, arbitrarily refused to honor the payment guarantee. Waste Management claimed damages of US$60 million.

A jurisdictional hearing was held in the case on January 31, 2000. The Tribunal issued an award on June 2, 2000, dismissing the investor's claim for lack of jurisdiction. The Tribunal held that Waste Management had failed to submit a valid waiver and that the case therefore was improperly before the Tribunal.

Waste Management resubmitted its case, which ICSID registered on September 27, 2000. Following a jurisdictional hearing in early February 2002, the Tribunal issued an unanimous award on June 26, 2002, rejecting Mexico's objections to the Tribunal's jurisdiction over Waste Management's resubmitted case.