A bad construction job. The contractual nature of the actio pauliana under Brussels Ia

Readers of this blog will be familiar with the European Court of Justice’s Feniks v Azteca ruling [1] – on which we reported earlier. There, the Court held that the actio pauliana – a form of fraudulent conveyance action – was a ‘matter relating to a contract’ for the purpose of Art 7(1) Brussels Ia (Regulation 1215/2012).[2] The upshot of this ruling was that the third party who allegedly frustrated the claimant’s contractual interest could be sued in the court of the place of performance of the defrauded contract (cfr Art 7(1)(b) Brussels Ia).