In May 2022, OTEKO-Portservice filed another lawsuit against Kaproben Handels, seeking to recover a termination fee in excess of USD300 million. The Denuo team successfully defended Kaproben Handels’ interests in the court of first instance and in the court of appeals. On 30 November 2023, the Ninth Arbitrazh Court of Appeals upheld Kaproben Handels’ position and supported the ruling of the Moscow Arbitrazh Court of 1 September 2023 dismissing OTEKO-Portservice’s claims in full.
This dispute is notable not only for the substantial amount of the claims, but also because it involved multiple complex legal and factual issues that required months of work with external experts and the collection and analysis of a large volume of evidence.
The Denuo team was led by Moscow-based Dispute Resolution counsel Alina Kudryavtseva and supported by associate Igor Klushin.
The OTEKO-Portservice’s vs Kaproben Handels case is one of the largest contractual disputes in Russia in the past few years and has been in the centre of attention from both traders and port operators using “take or pay” contracts. They are equally interested in seeing the most balanced approach to issues arising upon termination of such contracts being formed by the court practice.
![Alina Kudryavtseva](/upload/medialibrary/ee7/60eq82qjj5sl0wj43y104k85iadxgv8e.jpg)
Alina KudryavtsevaCounsel