GAZ files 3rd major lawsuit against Volkswagen in Russian court seeking 15.6 bln rub
MOSCOW. May 10 (Interfax) - The Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ) has filed its third lawsuit against the German Volkswagen automobile concern in the Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod region since mid-March, seeking about 15.6 billion rubles similarly to the first lawsuit.
According to case files, GAZ filed its third major lawsuit against Volkswagen on May 5. The amount of the claim is 15.575 billion rubles. No further details were provided so far.
The parties to proceedings have yet to comment to Interfax.
GAZ has already filed two lawsuits against Volkswagen in the Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod, the first one worth 15.6 billion rubles in mid-March, and the second one seeking 28.4 billion rubles in early April. The first lawsuit deals with the payment of damages, which, according to GAZ, were inflicted on the enterprise following the termination of the agreement with Volkswagen on the assembly of cars in Nizhny Novgorod under contract, and the majority of the second lawsuit deals with compensations for lost profits.
In both lawsuits GAZ demanded an imposition of interim measures in the form of seizure of the German concern's Russian assets. Initially, the court did grant one such request, in the first suit by order the seizure of the company's car plant in Kaluga, shares in its local subsidiary (OOO Volkswagen Group Rus, VGR) and affiliated companies, and banning the VW representative office from any incorporations. However, all measures were overturned later. GAZ failed to convince the court that overturning them would make it impossible to receive damages, if a court ruling were in its favor.
Against this backdrop GAZ organized a press statement during which its workers' councils chairman Yevgeny Morozov said the plant had "faced an unacceptable situation where Volkswagen is planning to walk away from its obligations." The lifting of the interim measures raised "many questions and eyebrows," he said, adding that he hoped that Russia's government and Industry and Trade Ministry would step in.
In late March. Trade and Industry Minister Denis Manturov said the ministry was "not a third party [to the proceedings] because those assets are private."
"It is a dispute between businesses. I hope we will find a compromise solution." Manturov said, without trying to predict when the situation might be settled.
Prior to March 2022 the Gorky car plant assembled Skoda (Octavia, Karoq, Kodiaq) and Volkswagen Taos. Then VW announced the discontinuation of its car production in Russia. Last summer the German concern also formally announced the closure of its Nizhny Novgorod office, the assembly contract was rescinded in August and VW paid four billion rubles to its Russian partner. At the time GAZ said it intended to "ensure an alternative workload" for the freed-up capacity.
In March VW's Russian office said it was surprised by the Gorky plant's legal claims, stressing that the assembly contract was terminated in 2022 by both sides after "comprehensive and profoundly substantive talks" on mutually advantageous terms.
"VGR fully honored its part of social obligations and a larger part of financial and other liabilities, most of them before the suit was filed. And our company received no claims from GAZ as to the quality of their execution. Given the voluntary and mutually advantageous nature of the arrangements reached, and their timely execution, we were, to say the least, surprised by our former partner's demanding their review and deciding to take the matter to a court to resolve a dispute that we did not know existed," the VW representative office said.
The Volkswagen plant in the Grabtsevo industrial park in Kaluga has a capacity of 225,000 cars per year. Before the spring of 2022 the enterprise produced Volkswagen Polo, Volkswagen Tiguan and Skoda Rapid models. Also located in Kaluga was a petrol engine plant with an annual capacity of 150,000 units.
According to the media and Telegram, the main potential buyer of the now idle VW assets, including the Kaluga plant, is Avilon, a car dealership group. However, there has been no comment on an impending deal from potential sides. In March, in a comment on the litigation with GAZ, Volkswagen only confirmed that it was "in the process of filing an application for approval by Russian authorities of a sale of our stake in VGR, including the Kaluga plant with over 4,000 staff, worthy of the trust of a Russian investor."
In late April - early May there were reports in the media and on Telegram that the acquisition by Avilon of VW's Russian assets was allegedly in its final stages. Thus, the Russky Avtomobil (Russian Automobile) Telegram channel said, citing an employee of the VGR car plant, that the sides were to sign documents on May 4-5 but the "deal failed to take place for reasons unknown."