"RN-Komsomolsky Refinery" calculated and charged a penalty

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The Sixth Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld the decision to collect $718,000 in penalties from Schneider Electric Systems LLC in favor of RN-Komsomolsky Oil Refinery (Khabarovsk Krai, owned by Rosneft) for the late delivery of equipment for the modernization of the plant, according to the court file.

In December 2021, the parties georgia whatsapp resource agreed to supply material and technical resources for a total of $2.393 million. The delivery period was set at 200 days from the date of the contract, but Schneider Electric Systems had not fulfilled its obligations by July 12, 2022. The contract stipulated that in the event of a violation of the deadline, the supplier would pay the buyer a penalty of 0.3% of the cost of the goods for each day of delay, but not more than 30% of the total amount.

in the amount of $718 thousand. However, the supplier offered to terminate the contract and pay a fine of 10% of the contract price ($239 thousand). The refinery refused and went to court. The court in July 2023recognized the buyer's calculation as correctThe parties did not dispute the fact that the goods were delivered late.

Schneider Electric Systems insisted that it could not influence the terms of the contract before its conclusion, including the amount of the penalty. But the court rejected this argument, relying on the fact that the contract was concluded following the procurement procedures, and the supplier did not make any demands to change the terms during the bidding - during the pre-contractual negotiations on the lot, the supplier did not ask questions about changing the liability, although he had such an opportunity.

"The defendant's argument about the disruption of supply logistics in connection with economic sanctions against the plaintiff was rejected by the court taking into account the following: in paragraph 18.1 of the contract, the parties agreed that no sanctions, trade restrictions or other similar measures of any state or supranational entity shall terminate or change the obligations of the parties under the contract," the first instance court's decision states.

"RN-Komsomolsky NPZ" explained that a Russian supplier, "Schneider Electric Systems", registered in Russia, was selected to supply the goods. In addition, the supplier's commercial offer, to which the buyer refers, states that "the defendant is the developer of the design documentation, but as of the date of the dispute, the working design documentation has not been fully developed, which excludes the manufacture of the goods." Moreover, within the framework of another dispute - about the contract for the supply of documentation - "Schneider Electric Systems" voluntarily paid a penalty in the amount of $64.6 thousand, and the case was dismissed.

The court did not reduce the amount of the penalty, taking into account the defendant’s deliberate knowledge of the strategic importance of the equipment for RN-Komsomolsky Oil Refinery LLC.

The plant is located in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The design capacity is 8.5 million tons of oil per year. The enterprise processes raw materials supplied via the main oil pipeline Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean, via a branch commissioned in 2019. Komsomolsk Oil Refinery is one of the main suppliers of petroleum products to the Far East market.

France's Schneider Electric in July 2022signed a binding agreemente about the sale of assets in Russia to local management. These included, in particular, the plant in the Leningrad Region "ElectroMonoblock" (produces low-voltage automatic devices, gas-insulated monoblocks, relay protection devices), the plants "Mekhanotronika" (St. Petersburg) and "Potentsial" (Kozmodemyansk, Mari El), "Engineering Service Center" (Moscow), the Innovation Center (Innopolis). Now these assets are listed among those managed by LLC "GC" System Electric ". According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, GC "System Electric" was registered on June 9, 2022. The head and co-owner is Alexey Kashaev (51%).