On May 22, 2026, the arbitral tribunal of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) issued an award fully rejecting all claims brought against the Republic of Armenia by the Lebanese company Sanitek and its owners, the Armenian government said in a press release.

The Lebanese company Sanitek provided waste collection and sanitation services in Yerevan. The Yerevan City Hall terminated its contracts with the company due to its improper performance of contractual obligations, which caused a waste management crisis in the city.

On March 11, 2021, Sanitek initiated arbitration proceedings, alleging that Armenia had violated the “Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Government of the Republic of Lebanon on the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments,” and sought approximately USD 36 million in compensation.

The arbitral tribunal unanimously ruled in favor of the Republic of Armenia, fully rejecting the claimants’ demands. The tribunal found that Sanitek had failed to properly fulfill its contractual obligations for waste collection and street cleaning services, despite having received payment for these services.

The tribunal emphasized that inadequate waste management poses a risk to public health and concluded that Armenia’s termination of the contracts was reasonable and justified.

It also noted that had the state not taken measures to replace Sanitek and address the service gap, this would have been considered a failure to fulfill its obligations to the public.

The tribunal further dismissed the claimants’ allegation that, following the 2018 change of government, Armenian authorities acted against Sanitek for political reasons rather than on contractual grounds, finding this claim unsubstantiated.

“The Republic of Armenia welcomes the tribunal’s award, which reaffirms that the reasonable exercise of a state’s contractual rights and its obligations toward its citizens cannot give rise to international liability,” the Armenian government said in a press release.