Bruno Pascua López v. Club Deportivo y Cultural Real Tomayapo & FIFA

Player Bruno Pascua López filed a claim against Club Deportivo y Cultural Real Tomayapo before the Federación Boliviana de Fútbol's own Dispute Resolution Tribunal on 28 November 2022. Without withdrawing that domestic claim, he then sued the same club over the same employment dispute before the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber on 4 May 2023 — running both proceedings in parallel. The FIFA DRC issued its decision on 3 August 2023 deeming his FIFA claim inadmissible.

López appealed that inadmissibility finding to CAS on 11 September 2023, naming both the club and FIFA as respondents. The club filed its answer on 7 February 2024. Before the case reached a hearing or a decision on the merits of the appeal, López informed CAS on 30 April 2024 that he was withdrawing it; neither the club nor FIFA objected.

With only the costs question left to decide, the Sole Arbitrator, Ernesto Gamboa Morales, applied CAS Code Article R64 and noted specifically that López had been "actively undergoing forum shopping" by pursuing the Bolivian and FIFA proceedings over the same dispute at the same time. On that basis, he held that López should bear the procedural costs of the arbitration and pay the club a CHF 1,000 contribution toward its legal fees.

The case shows forum shopping carrying a direct costs consequence at CAS even where the underlying dispute is never decided on its merits: the arbitrator did not need to resolve the substantive employment dispute at all to penalise the player specifically for having pursued it in two forums simultaneously.