The court will collect from Siemens daily 6.1 million rubles of penalties in favor of Russian Railways

2023: The court will recover from Siemens daily 6.1 million rubles of penalties in favor of Russian Railways

On May 22, 2023, the Moscow Arbitration Court partially satisfied the application of Russian Railways to recover a penalty from Siemens Mobility for each day of non-execution of the court decision, which invalidated the termination of the contract between the companies for the supply of Sapsan trains. According to the decree, the German company will be fined daily in the amount of 6.1 million rubles in case of failure to comply with the court decision of February 21, 2023.

Russian Railways and Siemens and Sinara had a contract for the purchase of 13 high-speed Sapsan trains for €513.5 million. New trains were planned to be launched on the sections Moscow - St. Petersburg and Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod. The German company was supposed to deliver trains from September 2022 to July 2023. But in 2022 Siemens left the Russian market, the company refused to fulfill the contract due to sanctions. Then the courts in 2023 recognized Siemens' refusal to fulfill its contractual obligations illegal and decided to fulfill the contract: the first instance on February 21 invalidated Siemens's unilateral termination of this contract with Russian Railways, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld the decision on April 25.

Sapsan high-speed train

Russian Railways asked to collect a penalty of 29.6 million rubles a day, but the court did not agree with this. As a result, the court will recover from Siemens daily 6.1 million rubles of penalties in favor of Russian Railways, starting the day after the decision comes into force.

Siemens stated that it was impossible to fulfill obligations under the contract due to sanctions, the case file noted. The court considered that the arguments of the German company contradict the explanations of the European Commission and the terms of the agreement, which was concluded before the imposition of sanctions against Russian Railways. They noted that the restrictions cannot affect the supply of 13 passenger electric trains.^[1]

2022: Transfer of Siemens equipment for maintenance of high-speed trains by court

From May 13, 2022, the German concern Siemens terminates service contracts for maintenance with Russian Railways, including the supply and maintenance of Sapsan and Lastochka trains. This became known on May 12, 2022.

In view of the scale of the European Union sanctions against the Russian Federation, as well as the adopted and potential responses and their serious consequences in terms of the day-to-day operations of Siemens Mobility, it was decided to curtail business in Russia, including the withdrawal from existing joint ventures and the termination of service contracts for maintenance with Russian Railways from May 13, Siemens told TASS[2].

Russian Railways demands to declare illegal the decision of the German company to terminate the agreement on the maintenance of high-speed trains.

Russian Railways will receive Siemens Mobility equipment necessary for the maintenance and repair of Sapsan trains.

This decision was made by the arbitration court as an interim measure in the claim against Siemens.

The court concluded that if the equipment for Sapsans was seized from Russian Railways and the claim of the Russian company was subsequently satisfied, it would be impossible to return the disputed property, since the concern was located in another state^[3]

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