KIANEWS Tele2 Russia withdrew its lawsuit against Nokia
20. 03. 2023 Monday / By: Robert Denes / Industrial / Exact time: BST / Print this page
T ele2 Russia has withdrawn its 478 million ruble ($6.2 million) lawsuit against Finland's Nokia after the company cut off service providers and left the Russian market due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Citing the Russian newspaper Vedemosti, CNews reported that the Moscow Arbitration Court accepted Tele2's decision and terminated the proceedings, the service provider owned by Rostelecom did not comment on its decision. According to experts, the parties most likely settled the differences for 478 million rubles. tete-a-tete.
The Tele2 mobile service provider dropped its lawsuit against Nokia's Russian subsidiary, Nokia Solutions and Networks LLC (NSN), with which the Moscow Arbitration Court accepted the rejection and terminated the proceedings. The company did not comment on its decision.
In May 2022, the Russian service provider filed a lawsuit against the Finnish telecommunications equipment manufacturer. This is related to Nokia's refusal to fulfill the equipment supply contract. According to Interfax, referring to the company's representatives, Nokia started violating the terms of the contract even before the sanctions were imposed. Tele2 demanded 478 million rubles.
As a temporary measure, the operator also wanted to close the defendant's accounts of 8 million euros and 2.6 thousand dollars (a total of about 648 million rubles at the exchange rate of the central bank on March 15, 2023). The court rejected the petition, and in November 2022 the plaintiff demanded the postponement of the court session "due to the possibility of concluding a settlement agreement".
In June 2019, Tele2 and Nokia signed a five-year contract to install 35,000 base stations for 2G, 3G, 4G networks, Vedomosti reports. The purpose of this was to update the network and prepare the infrastructure for the introduction of 5G.
Recall that in April 2022, Nokia announced the termination of its operations in Russia. The company retained the technical support of Russian customers and became a separate legal entity. This ensures the operation of previously installed equipment in Russia after the eighth package of EU sanctions entered into force.
According to Jurij Fedyukin, managing partner of the Enterprise Legal Solutions law firm, the parties probably discussed the possibility and terms of settling the dispute out of court in 2022. As the expert admits, the obligations of Nokia's Russian "daughter" both for the delivery of the equipment and for the repayment of the debt can be transferred to an organization unrelated to the Finnish company - the expert admits.
Meanwhile, at the end of January 2023, the Ministry of Digital Development banned telecommunications providers from receiving infrastructure technical support services from foreign companies. Violations are subject to fines and increase the likelihood of license revocation. The problems must be solved by Russian legal entities, which employ specialists from the largest foreign base station suppliers. Many service providers already cooperate with them.
In February 2023, it became known that Russian mobile operators could switch to equipment from Indian, Israeli, Turkish and Chinese manufacturers. In the Unified Register of Compliance Certificates, information appeared that OTK LLC registered a certificate for the supply of JRC Japan, HTC Taiwan and Israel Telrad base stations in mid-2022 and early 2023. Testing has already begun.
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