In a trade secrets case, a US judge fines Sterlite Tech $96 million.

16 Aug 2024 , 12:40 PM

A US court has ordered $96 million (about Rs 806 crore) in damages to be paid by Sterlite Technologies (STL) for trade-related rights violations involving Italian competitor Prysmian.

In a statement, STL declared that it will “aggressively” contest the decision. The company, in which Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta mining group owns a 45% share, reported a Rs 82 crore loss on Rs 1,140 crore in revenue during the first quarter of fiscal 2025.

On August 9, following a trial that lasted three years, a jury in South Carolina concluded that Sterlite was unlawfully in possession of Prysmian’s trade secrets, which included client lists, upcoming goods, and plans to expand production.

According to Italy’s Prysmian, executives at the worldwide headquarters of Sterlite, which is led by Ankit Agarwal, in Pune, India, even had thousands of pages of records in their possession.

Prysmian issued a statement to the exchanges saying, “The jury found that Sterlite was unjustly enriched by taking Prysmian’s trade secrets and awarded $96,500,000 in damages against Sterlite Technologies, Inc.”

“Moreover, the jury awarded $200,000 against Mr. (Stephen) Szymanski, personally, finding that he had been unjustly enriched by misappropriating Prysmian’s trade secrets.”

After leading Prysmian’s optical fiber cable division in North America, Szymanski joined Sterlite in August 2020, a direct rival.

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