In a recent decision published on 15 January 2021, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (“SFSC”) upheld a request for revision of an arbitral award of the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (“CAS”) regarding the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang on grounds of bias and lack of impartiality of the chairman of the CAS panel (case no. 4A_318/2021 (in French)).

Factual background

With its decision of February 28, 2020, the CAS imposed an eight-year ban on the Chinese swimmer Sun Yang for violation of doping rules. On June 15, 2020, Sun Yang filed an appeal against the CAS award with the SFSC. In the appeal, he raised doubts against the impartiality of the chairman of the CAS panel, Franco Frattini. In support thereof, Sun Yang submitted evidence according to which in 2018 and 2019, Franco Frattini had repeatedly published comments about the treatment of animals in China on his Twitter account, containing extreme anti-Chinese language.