Markmidco S.àr.l., a Luxembourg company, sold to Zeta Interactive Corp. its interest in a customer relationship management business consisting of several companies that provided to retailers email and text message marketing, database management, and related services. The parties’ agreement called for several earn-out payments to be made upon the determination that the CRM business had surpassed certain revenue thresholds laid out in the contract. Zeta refused to make the first earn-out payment of $4 million, claiming the revenue threshold had not been reached as of the deadline. Markmidco disagreed and referred the parties’ dispute to an arbitrator. The arbitrator agreed with Markmidco and awarded it the earn-out payment.

The parties’ dispute then moved to federal court where Markmidco’s award was confirmed over several arguments from Zeta seeking its vacatur. Zeta argued that the parties’ contract called for a “manifest error” standard of review. However, the court held that the parties “cannot contract for more judicial review than the FAA and Convention grant them.” Zeta next argued that the award should be vacated due to the arbitrator’s manifest disregard of the law, but failed to identify any instance of the arbitrator ignoring the applicable law.

The court also denied Zeta’s claim that the arbitrator exceeded his powers, stating that his findings were reasonable interpretations based on analysis of specific provisions of the purchase agreement. When presented with an argument that an arbitrator has exceeded his powers, the “sole question” for the court is “whether the arbitrator (even arguably) interpreted the parties’ contract, not whether he got its meaning right or wrong.” As such, Zeta’s argument failed.

Zeta also argued that the grounds for vacatur stated in the Delaware Uniform Arbitration Act should apply rather than those provided by the Federal Arbitration Act because the parties’ contract included a choice-of-law provision selecting Delaware law. The court held that, under Third Circuit law, state law vacatur standards apply only when the parties express a clear intent to supplant the FAA standards with state law standards. A choice-of-law provision that applied broadly to the parties’ contract was not a sufficiently clear expression of the parties’ intent to opt out of the FAA scheme.

Lastly, Zeta argued that enforcement of the award was premature because other proceedings between the two parties were ongoing. The court held that Zeta’s claims in the collateral proceeding did not overlap with the issues submitted by the parties to the arbitrator. The court also held that issuing a stay or denying enforcement of the award at this time “would transform a summary proceeding into a protracted dispute,” contrary to the “basic purpose” of arbitration. The court ordered enforcement of the arbitration award.

Markdutcho 1 B.V. v. Zeta Interactive Corp., No. 1:17-cv-01420 (D. Del. Nov. 12, 2019).