Rosatom contractor gains recognition of its rightness in dispute with HPE

2022: Recognition of the correctness of STK Development in a dispute with HPE

On September 6, 2022, it became known that Russian the contractor nuclear industry had obtained in court the invalidation of the service contract concluded by the company with the company that left our countries the American company. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

The contractor in this case was STK Development. She is known for her many years of confrontation with the Russian office of the American company Cisco, Sisko Solutions LLC, which also left our country.

In its statement, the Russian company indicated that on January 1, 2019, it entered into an agreement on maintenance services for the equipment of the American vendor (HPE) for JSC All-Russian Research Institute for the Operation of Nuclear Power Plants (VNIIAES; included in Rosatom) - a research and design organization engaged in work in the nuclear power.

Under the terms of this agreement, HPE has committed to provide comprehensive technical support services for the equipment of which VNIIAES is the end user.

At the same time, on May 25, 2022, the plaintiff received a notification from the defendant about the impossibility of fulfilling obligations under the contract and its termination from April 22, 2022, the STK lawsuit says, the plaintiff considers the defendant's notification of unilateral refusal of the contract illegal and invalid.

In its claim, STK noted that according to clause 2.4 of the contract, if any political or economic sanctions by the United States or any other countries become applicable to the customer or its affiliates, NRE may (at its discretion) immediately terminate the agreement in question out of court or suspend the fulfillment of any of its obligations, including guarantees for any period.

From the cumulative interpretation of this clause, it follows that the contract can be terminated at the initiative of the defendant only upon the onset of the following condition: if any restrictions by the United States and third countries are applied to STK Development JSC and its affiliates, the lawsuit says. - In this dispute, the United States and other countries of the world did not apply any economic and political sanctions against STK Development JSC and its affiliates. Thus, the key condition for the defendant to have the right to unilateral refusal of the contract did not come, which means that the defendant did not have legal grounds for terminating the contract.

Based on this, the STK considered that the conduct of HPE in refusing to perform the contract could not be recognized as bona fide and subject to judicial protection. Russian ministers of Themis agreed with this argument. The claim of "STK development" is fully satisfied, according to the note on the website of arbitration courts. The full verdict of the judges in the public domain has not yet been submitted^[1].

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