The Central Bank of Russia, led by Elvira Nabiullina, won a dispute at the Moscow Arbitration Court against Mont LLC. The court ordered MONT to pay 78 million rubles toand interest on the use of other people’s money in the amount of 16.5 million. This amount equals 933,000 euros.
At the heart of this dispute are the sanctions that the United States imposed on the Central Bank of Russia in 2022.
According to court materials, in 2019, the Central Bank and MONT entered into a contract. According to this contract, MONT was to provide certificates granting access to technical support for software products from American company VEEAM*, of which it was a distributor. The amount of the contract was 153 million rubles.
According to the agreement, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation had access to technical support from November 23, 2020 until November 22, 2023. However, on March 12, 2022, VEEAM sent an email to employees of the Bank of Russia informing them about the suspension of support and maintenance. The reason for this was the US sanctions that were imposed on the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on March 1, 2022.
After ceasing technical support, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation turned to MONT for a refund in proportion to the lack of access period. However, MONT said that it considered its obligation to provide access certificates fulfilled. It stated that according to the contract, technical support was the responsibility of VEEAM and not the distributor.
However, the court sided with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, deciding that MONT had mistakenly qualified the agreement concluded between the Bank of Russia and MONT LLC as a supply agreement. The contract between the plaintiff and defendant, based on its essential terms and by its legal nature, refers to a contract for the provision of paid services, the court decided.
* Veeam Backup & Replication Enterprise Plus is software for data backup and recovery.
