Dell, Apple and Netflix face lawsuits to withdraw services from Russia!
See also: Problems with alcohol distribution in Russia: Is Ukraine's IT Army responsible?
A Moscow Arbitration Court has reportedly seized nearly $11 million belonging to Dell LLC after the company failed to provide paid services to a local systems integrator.
IT systems integrator Talmer sued Dell early last month after the US giant refused to provide VMware technical support services, as previously agreed. Dell is VMware's representative in Russia and resold these services until March 1, 2022.
The Moscow-based company had allegedly paid Dell in advance for these services, but because they never received them, this was a violation of the terms of service.
Sanctions imposed against Russia by the Western world and public sentiment forced companies like Dell and VMware to curtail activities .
"At the same time, despite the termination of the provision of services by WMware in the Russian Federation, the defendant did not take any action for an alternative method of fulfilling obligations and did not return the advances to Talmer LLC," the court clarifies in the decision reproduced by Russian media.
Due to this decision, Russian courts seized 778,526,223 rubles from local bank accounts, which is currently valued at approximately $10,900,000.
The decision can be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals within a month, but Dell has not commented on whether it plans to exercise that right. Dell also appears to have made no comment on the lawsuit, as it is policy not to comment on pending litigation.
See also: Binance: Restrictions on Russia services after EU sanctions
Apple and Netflix were also sued
Late last month, Apple faced a similar legal issue after a Russian law firm filed a class action lawsuit for breach of contract, seeking 90 million rubles in damages, about $1.29 million.
The lawsuit alleges that Apple unilaterally withdrew its Apple Pay payment service from the country, depriving Russian iOS of a feature that was made available to them and that they expected to enjoy indefinitely when they purchased iPhones .
Apple's move has substantially devalued the iPhone in Russia, which increases the total damages that can be claimed, with the law firm demanding a fine of 50% of the compensation amount and moral damages.
The same law firm filed a class action lawsuit against Netflix in April on similar grounds of violating user terms, demanding 60 million rubles ($860,000) in damages.
See also: Nokia and Ericsson withdraw from Russia: Will Huawei follow?
Legal experts in the Western world agree that the unprecedented sanctions against Russia have pushed everyone into uncharted territory, with companies struggling to map their movements and assess the consequences of exiting the Russian market.
On the one hand, organizations must monitor and manage rapidly evolving sanctions that include an expanding list of entities to avoid being sanctioned. On the other hand, they face civil fines and even criminal prosecution from Russian customers who abandon them.
Information source: bleepingcomputer.com
