Section 9 Initiating arbitration proceedings

(1) The party entitled to apply for arbitration must present her or his claim in an application to the Service Desk. The application must contain

a) the names and addresses of the parties;

b) the names and addresses of a counsel of the party entitled to apply for arbitration;

c) a specific claim;

d) facts and circumstances on which this claim may be based, in particular information about the
cultural property in question, the original title, and the circumstances of the loss of property due
to persecution as a result of the Nazi regime as referred to in the Assessment Framework;

e) an explanation of the formal entitlement to apply for arbitration if the party entitled to apply for
arbitration is not the victim of persecution him- or herself;

f) if the claim is made vis-à-vis a public institution holding cultural property, a description of the
previous procedure in which no result was achieved, or of the institution’s decision to forgo such a procedure; and

g) a copy of the arbitration agreement or the request that the Service Desk bring about such an
agreement with the other party.

(2) The application is to be accompanied by documents and other information which make a claim at
least appear to be possible according to the Assessment Framework. The application and supporting
documents may be submitted to the Service Desk in paper or digital form. The Service Desk checks
whether the information and the supporting documents are complete. If the application is incomplete
or if documents are lacking, the Service Desk asks the party entitled to apply for arbitration to supply
the missing information within a certain time limit.

(3) The Service Desk should defer the application for a reasonable amount of time to allow the parties
to conclude the previous procedure, if it was not concluded in accordance with section 7 because

a) ongoing provenance research has not yet been completed or

b) the party entitled to apply for arbitration has not yet presented the necessary documents to the
institution holding cultural property.

(4) The Service Desk forwards the application to the other party without undue delay.