Friday 15th January 2021
Gas Turbine Order Fraud?
General Electric is suing Siemens Energy
In May 2019, Siemens Energy and the American competitor General Electric apply for an order for gas turbines. The German industrial company prevails. According to GE, however, only because the application is improved with the help of unfair means.
The US industrial group General Electric (GE) has sued its German competitor Siemens for stealing trade secrets. In a lawsuit filed with a court in Virginia on Thursday, GE alleges that Siemens' energy division used internal GE material in 2019 and illegally obtained advantages in the battle for a gas turbine contract from Dominion Energy.
The case goes back to May 2019. At that time, Siemens Energy was still part of the Munich-based Siemens group. GE puts the damage at more than a billion dollars, which corresponds to around 820 million euros.
According to this, a Dominion employee is said to have passed details of the GE offer to an employee of Siemens Energy. Siemens employees used the information to improve their company's offer. According to the complaint, Siemens Energy landed the contract with a volume between 225 million and 340 million dollars – according to today's value between 185 and 280 million euros.
Siemens rejects the allegations. After an internal investigation, the group informed both Dominion and GE about the transfer of the business internals, said a company spokeswoman. Siemens also took "swift and appropriate" disciplinary measures against the employees involved. Confidential GE information was also removed from all Siemens systems.
In contrast, the lawsuit states that Siemens has "stubbornly" refused to give GE an assurance that "all stolen trade secrets have been destroyed". Siemens spun off Siemens Energy last year and listed it on the stock exchange.
. (tagsToTranslate) Economy (t) Siemens (t) General Electric (t) USA