On February 13, 2014, the Eighth Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) issued an order in Merck Canada Inc v. Accord Healthcare Ltd, holding that a Portuguese arbitral tribunal could refer questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling.  According to the press release, the Court ruled that “a conventional arbitral tribunal is not to be considered a court or tribunal of a Member State, since the contracting parties are under no obligation, in law or in fact, to refer their disputes to arbitration and the public authorities of the relevant Member State are neither involved in the decision to opt for arbitration nor required to intervene of their own accord in the proceedings before the arbitrator.”  However, the Portuguese tribunal at issue, the Tribunal Arbitral necessário, is a “court or tribunal of a Member State” for the purposes of the preliminary ruling procedure because it meets “all of the requirements to be considered a court or tribunal,” including that “[i]ts jurisdiction stems not from the will of the parties, but from Portuguese legislation.”