Joint venture disputes commonly involve deadlock between partners with equal or near-equal control, disagreement over capital contribution or funding obligations, exit and buy-out valuation disputes, and breach of non-compete or exclusivity terms between the JV partners.
Because JV agreements frequently involve parties from different jurisdictions or corporate groups, the arbitration clause should address seat, governing law, number of arbitrators and any deadlock-breaking mechanism (such as a casting vote or expert determination for narrow valuation questions) with particular care — a poorly drafted JV arbitration clause is one of the most common sources of a pathological clause dispute in cross-border commercial contracts.
Confidentiality is typically paramount here too: JV disputes often involve competitively sensitive financial and strategic information that neither partner wants exposed in public litigation, even against each other.