Cases

Microsoft sued U.S. Government

The Microsoft Corporation has sued the government of the United States of America for the right to tell its customers when the authorities request access to their emails. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Seattle, argues that preventing Microsoft from notifying its users about government requests for the access to their emails and other documents violates the Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, establishing the right for people as well as businesses to know if the government searches or seizes their property. Besides, as Microsoft’s legal experts say, the government’s actions also contravene the First Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to free speech. The lawsuit also states that during the past 18 months Microsoft received over 5,000 federal demands for customer information, and nearly half came with gagging orders preventing the company from telling customers that the government was looking at their data. And most of the demands applied to individuals, not companies, and provided no fixed end date to the secrecy provision.

Google won action on right to scan books in USA

The US Supreme Court has ruled that it will not conduct a hearing on the appeal by the Authors Guild, claiming that Google infringes copyrights when scanning books without special permission. The decision of the Supreme Court shall be final in this case. Legal action between Google and a major US literary guild lasted for about 11 years. The Authors Guild argued in courts of various instances that this project undermines the ability of its members to earn income from their work. On its part Google defended the position that the database did not violate copyright laws, as it is only a “card-index catalog for the digital age”. Google Inc. started scanning books in 2004 — so that it could incorporate excerpts from them into its database connected to the search engine — and in 2005 the Guild and certain authors filed the lawsuit against it. The Google database allows you to search among millions of titles of books and read individual pages or fragments of them. .

Volkswagen and USA reached out-of-court settlement

German auto manufacturer Volkswagen and the US authorities have reached an out-of-court settlement in the “diesel scandal”. Volkswagen will pay out USD 5,000 for each buyer of its cars in the USA as compensation for damages. Regardless of this amount, Volkswagen shall have to pay for reworking (of software) in each car. Volkswagen shall reserve at least USD 10 billion on payments in civil lawsuits filed by the US authorities, as well as for American owners of vehicles affected by the “diesel scandal”. You will recall that in September 2015 the US Environmental Protection Agency initiated an investigation against Volkswagen on suspicion that the manufacturer installed on its diesel models special software that allows you to bypass a check of harmful substances emission level for several years running. The scandal forced the US subsidiary of Volkswagen to suspend sales of certain models. Among them are the two-liter diesel Audi A3, Golf, Passat, Jetta and Beetle.

Tatneft sued Ukrainian businessmen in Ukrtatnafta case

Russian oil company PJSC Tatneft has initiated legal proceedings in England against Ukrainian businessmen Gennady Bogolyubov, Igor Kolomoisky, Alexander Yaroslavsky and Pavel Ovcharenko in the case of oil supply to the Kremenchuk oil refinery and requires reimbursement for damages and interest in the amount of USD 334 million. In the lawsuit filed by Tatneft it is stated that in 2009 the mentioned persons fraudulently appropriated funds due to Tatneft for oil supplied to the Kremenchuk oil refinery (CJSC Ukrtatnafta). In 2008 Tatneft through international arbitration filed a lawsuit against Ukraine demanding the reimbursement of damages in the amount of USD 520 million. The amount of the claim was later increased to USD 2.4 billion.

United States launched investigation into Mitsubishi

The US authorities launched an investigation into the Japanese Mitsubishi Motors Corp, after it confessed to falsifying fuel consumption data of cars manufactured by it. The US agency which regulates road safety is already collecting information on the issue. Mitsubishi Motors acknowledged that it provided false data on fuel consumption by compact cars. In particular, company representatives used a lower resistivity factor to movement than required during testing.

In addition, testing methods did not meet requirements of Japanese law. The company deliberately underestimated data on fuel consumption of 625,000 cars, 468,000 of which were made by Mitsubishi Motors for Nissan Corp. As a result, Mitsubishi and Nissan decided temporarily to suspend sales of four models of compact cars: eK Wagon and eK Space, as well as Dayz and Dayz Roox. The Japanese authorities gave Mitsubishi till 27 April to submit a detailed report on violations.

Christian Louboutin won USD 364,000 from Russian companies

Moscow City Arbitration Court satisfied a claim filed by French designer Christian Louboutin and his company, Christian Louboutin S.A.S., to recover RUB 24.2 million (about USD 364,000) from four Russian companies. The lawsuit was related to the fact that the defendants advertised their products through trademarks, developed by the designer. The defendants argued that the brand’s image, assigned to the plaintiff, was not placed on the products of the companies. On the contrary, only the name Louboutin was printed on the perfume in a normal font. Moreover, promotion of products with brand, protected by Russian law, was removed from internet web sites immediately after the legal action was brought by Louboutin. However, the plaintiff proved that he did not give any written or verbal authorization to use such labeling. Initially, the only claimant was Christian Louboutin himself, but the company that bears his name expressed a desire to participate in judicial proceedings, and was named co-plaintiff.