SK Innovation filed a counter-suit through a South Korean court against LG Chem. A lawsuit battle that started in the U.S. due to the fact that 76 executives and employees of LG Chem’s Battery Business Headquarters changed jobs to SK Innovation in 2017 is now taking place in South Korea.
SK Innovation stated that it filed a claim for damages on its reputation by believing that there will be significant amount of tangible and intangible damages and setbacks on its business due to LG Chem’s lawsuit and that it also filed a lawsuit to make sure that it has not invaded LG Chem’s business secrets at all.
It is going to file a claim for $845,000 (1 billion KRW) for damages and it is going to file additional claims for damages in the future after looking into possible damages that it may suffer during a lawsuit process.
According to SK Innovation’s petition, SK Innovation has led electric vehicle battery business by starting its research on electric vehicle battery in 1992 at its research institute in Ulsan, supplying batteries to Hyundai Motor Company in 2010 for South Korea’s first complete electric vehicle called BlueOn, and supplying batteries to Kia in 2011 for South Korea’s first mass-produced electric vehicle called Ray.
“We could not condone LG Chem’s baseless criticisms when the public wants fair competitions between major corporations.” said a representative for SK Innovation. “Through this counter-suit, we want to file a claim for damages on our reputation and credibility and prove that we have not invaded LG Chem’s business secrets.”
Prior to SK Innovation’s counter-suit, LG Chem along with USITC filed a lawsuit against SK Innovation in April for invading its business secrets through Delaware’s District Court. It claimed that its important technologies were leaked when 76 executives and employees from its Battery Business Headquarters changed jobs to SK Innovation in 2017. This lawsuit has progressed on full-scale when ITC decided to start necessary investigations on the 29th of May.
“We are only confronting LG Chem’s lawsuit head on and there will be additional measures along with legal measures in the future.” said SK Innovation while hinting that this lawsuit may grow in size in the future.
“We feel regrettable about SK Innovation filing a counter-suit against when we filed a lawsuit against SK Innovation for legitimate act of protection of our right.” said LG Chem regarding SK Innovation’s counter-suit. “Rather than small disputes and emotional confrontation against SK Innovation’s claim, we are going to take every action through legal procedure.”
Staff Reporter Jung, Hyunjung | iam@etnews.com