How a scheme sets the cost of a case

The fee is a rule, not a negotiation

Across institutions the cost of a case is read off a published schedule, not agreed case by case. The schedule sets a registration or filing fee, an administrative fee for the institution and a fee for the tribunal, and it sets them by the amount in dispute. Two parties with the same claim size pay the same, because the rulebook, not the administrator, fixes the number. The ICDR International Arbitration Fee Schedule and the SIAC Schedule of Fees both work this way.^1,2

Banded by the amount in dispute

A DIAC case in Dubai starts with a USD 3,000 registration fee. The administrative and tribunal fees are then banded: on a USD 5,000,000 claim before a sole arbitrator the administrative fee is USD 43,140 (which is USD 30,000 plus 0.438% of the USD 3,000,000 above USD 2,000,000), and the tribunal fee runs from USD 40,000 to USD 122,640. An emergency arbitrator, if used, is a USD 35,000 fee plus a USD 15,000 administrative fee. None of this is quoted case by case; it is read off the 2025 Table of Fees.^3,4

arbitrateAD in Abu Dhabi has the same shape with a cap. A case starts with an AED 10,000 filing fee that counts towards the administrative fee; on an AED 10,000,000 claim the administrative fee is AED 76,000, and the administrative fee is capped at AED 300,000 however large the claim. A sole arbitrator is AED 198,000, and the schedule also prices the smaller steps: AED 3,500 to file a notice of challenge, AED 11,500 to act as appointing authority (Annex 1).⁵

Scaled, with a floor and a ceiling

FINRA, which runs US securities arbitration, scales the customer filing fee to the claim: from USD 50 on the smallest claims to USD 2,300 on claims over USD 5,000,000 (Rule 12900). The member firm pays a separate surcharge, from USD 150 to USD 4,325, charged once per member per case, which the panel cannot move to another party (Rule 12901). Scaling with a low floor is deliberate: it keeps the forum usable for a USD 50,000 dispute, which a single public arbitrator decides on the papers.^6,7

A different model for complaints

Complaint schemes invert the model. The UK Financial Ombudsman Service is free to the consumer and charges the firm complained about a case fee of up to £680 for 2026/27, with a £2,000 case fee allowance each financial year. A capped per-case fee, rather than a band on the amount in dispute, is the rule that fits a scheme where the complaints are many and mostly small, and the fee drops by £180, to £500, where a professional representative brought the complaint and the service did not find for the complainant, ruled it outside its jurisdiction or dismissed it. The point holds: the fee is set by rule, not negotiated.⁸

A fee schedule is a rule with a price attached. Its value is that the same claim costs the same for everyone, and the institution can show that it did.

Why a fee schedule is an administration tool

A published, banded fee does two jobs at once. It makes the cost predictable for the parties before they file, and it makes the institution’s charging defensible, because the same rule was applied to every case and the institution can show it was. Setting the schedule, and applying it the same way each time, is rulebook work, the same pattern set out in administering a case on your own rulebook.¹