We have achieved a full victory for our client United Media (UM), Southeast Europe’s leading media company, in a hard-fought litigation against Telekom Serbia (TS), the Serbian State-owned TV-content producer and telecommunications operator. After almost 3.5 years of proceedings, we just received the judgement of the Zurich Commercial Court, dismissing all of TS’s claims and ordering TS to pay for UM’s costs.
This case is testimony to the fact that parties with little or no connection to Switzerland frequently opt to resolve their largest and most prominent disputes in a neutral Swiss forum—and that having Quinn Emanuel by your side will drastically enhance your chances of winning the case.
TS and UM are the two main competitors in Serbia’s media market. For years, they have engaged in a fierce battle over market dominance.
It was TS who sued UM in the Zurich Commercial Court—seeking to bring the dispute from a local Serbian court to a forum that is internationally renowned and that would have given any victory some legitimacy not only back in Serbia but also abroad.
TS based its lawsuit on Serbian law—more specifically on the Serbian Trade Act—and alleged that UM engaged in unfair competition. TS argued that certain media content on UM’s TV channels and website was derogatory to TS. It was TS’s case that as a consequence its reputation suffered, and it therefore lost cable-TV subscribers.
Our position was from the outset that for several reasons TS had no case under the Serbian Trade Act. We argued that the requirements for unfair competition as defined by the Serbian Trade Act were not met and that in any event the statements made were not derogatory, as they were actually true.
TS failed. The court dismissed all of TS’s claims against our client UM and ordered TS to pay for costs. In fact, the court followed us on all of five of the separate grounds we argued that can lead to a dismissal of the claims. Our client is thrilled, and Serbia’s news are plastered with headlines on UM’s win in Swiss courts.