Russian dealers of foreign software continue to pay for the withdrawal of suppliers from the country and sanctions.
The Moscow Arbitration Court has put an end to the dispute between the state corporation VEB.RF* and IT supplier Softline JSC. VEB.RF demanded 31 million rubles from Softline for “unjust enrichment”, 13.8 million compensation and 3 million interest. The dispute arose from a contract between the companies in 2021: Softline transferred rights to use Microsoft’s software to VEB.RF. The state corporation paid RUB 37.6 million in rights in 2021 and RUB 37.9 million in 2022.
But in March 2022, software rights were terminated, as Microsoft ceased providing such services in Russia. After that, the state corporation went to the court.
As a result, the arbitration court decided to recover from Softline in favor of VEB.RF RUB 31,024,263 and interest in the amount of RUB 3,031,223.
The court refused to compensate for 2023 (the deadline for the grant of rights for this period appeared in the documents, but according to the court materials, payment was not made), in the amount of 13 million.
Such a court decision was not the first. Earlier, the Moscow Arbitration Court had ruled to recover 29.7 million from FORCE Distribution for Veltio LLC. The dispute was based on Oracle cloud services provided by Agrotorg (Pyaterochka retail chain).
* VEB.RF is a state corporation established by Russian federal law exclusively for the public good. In partnership with commercial banks, VEB.RF provides financing for large-scale projects to develop the country’s infrastructure, industrial production and social sphere. VEB.RF is also a government agent for Russia’s foreign debt, both of the Russian Government and of the former Soviet Union, and the management of certain pension funds through State Trust Management Company, a separate division of VEB.RF.
