The Moscow Arbitration Court for commercial disputes agreed that Vostok-Logistik imported Shell lubricants without authorization into Russia, a Shell official confirmed to Lube Report.
According to the claim filed by Shell Brands International, the Anglo-Dutch oil major sought financial compensation of 53 million rubles (U.S. $1.6 million) for unauthorized import of its production by the Moscow-based Vostok-Logistik, a cargo transportation company.
Shell requested that the court ban Vostok-Logistik from import and distribution without its consent of brands such as Helix, Spirax, Tellus, Gadus, Rimula, Corena and Omala. These include motor, hydraulic, gear and industrial oils as well as greases. Shell operates a 180,000 tons per year lubricants production complex located in Torzhok, Tverskaya Oblast.
Our production facility in Russia is not making a complete line of Shell products. There are certain kinds of technological processes for production of greases or aviation oils for example, that are not developed in our plant in Torzhok, Oleg Deriy, the companys regional director for Central and Eastern Europe, told Lube Report at the WRAs Base Oils and Lubricants in Russia and the CIS conference held in Cannes, France, last week.
We have excellent collaboration with the judicial authorities in Russia, and the Moscow court ruling shows that the state is ready to protect the trademark franchising in the country, he added.
While Shells initial claim sought 53 million rubles, the court awarded a significantly lower sum of 5.3 million rubles ($160,000), according to an official with Noerr, the legal firm representing Shell.
Generally, Russian courts substantially reduce the amount of compensation against parallel importers, since such an amount is determined upon a courts discretion, Victor Gerbutov, head of dispute resolution in Noerr, told Lube Report on Monday. Despite the reduction, the amount of compensation granted in this case is still one of the largest in Russia ruled for parallel import cases.
Vostok-Logistik declined to comment.
Through its subsidiary Shell Neft, Shell has established a wide network of official distributors for its finished lubricants in Russia since the early 1990s. It claims around 20 percent of the countrys 500,000 t/y of imported finished lubricants.
