SVOLT and CATL Reach Settlement on Unfair Competition Case

After nearly half a year, the lawsuit between battery developer SVOLT and industry giant CATL has come to an end. On July 19, under the auspices of the Ningde Intermediate People’s Court of Fujian Province, the two companies reached a settlement on the unfair competition case, determining that CATL will receive a settlement of 5 million yuan ($741,000) from SVOLT.

In February this year, CATL filed a lawsuit against SVOLT and its two affiliated companies, alleging unfair competition.

SEE ALSO: CATL Sues SVOLT for Unfair Competition

CATL believed that from 2018 to 2019, nine CATL employees provided services for SVOLT after leaving their jobs, which violated the Confidentiality and Non-Competition Agreements they had signed. CATL requires these nine employees to pay liquidated damages of 1 million yuan ($148,200) each.

It was found by the court that although SVOLT was not included in the List of Non-Competition Enterprises in the relevant agreements of CATL. The court held that the business scope of SVOLT was highly overlapped with that of CATL, and the two companies could be identified as competitive enterprises.

According to its official website, SVOLT was established in February 2018, formerly known as the power battery division of Great Wall Motors. Recently, SVOLT has firmly occupied the top 10 list in terms of installed capacity. In June, SVOLT ranked 7th with an installed capacity of 0.57 GWh. In the first half of the year, SVOLT ranked 6th with an installed capacity of 2.58 GWh, surpassing Sunwoda.

It is worth noting that in January this year, SVOLT conducted listing counseling and filing in the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission Jiangsu Bureau. Therefore, the lawsuit of CATL is also considered as a precise attack on the listing of SVOLT.

Now, with a reconciliation between the two parties, the listing process of SVOLT will likely be unimpeded.