US court fines Sterlite Tech $96 m in trade secrets case
US court has slapped Vedanta Group-backed optic fibre manufacturer Sterlite Technologies (STL) with damages of $96 million (around ₹806 crore) for trade-related rights infringements involving American rival Prysmian.
STL, in a statement, said it will «aggressively» challenge the verdict. The company, in which mining group Vedanta led by Anil Agarwal holds a 25% stake posted a loss of ₹82 crore in the first quarter of fiscal 2025, on revenue of ₹1,140 crore.
After a three-year battle, a South Carolina jury, on August 9, found that Sterlite was in illegal possession of Prysmian's trade secrets including customers, new products and manufacturing expansion plans.
Thousands of pages of documents were even found in the possession of executives at Ankit Agarwal-headed Sterlite's global headquarters in Pune, India, Italy's Prysmian has said.
«The jury found that Sterlite was unjustly enriched by taking Prysmian's trade secrets and awarded $96,500,000 in damages against Sterlite Technologies,» Prysmian said in a statement to the exchanges.
«In addition, the jury found that Stephen Szymanski had been unjustly enriched by misappropriating Prysmian's trade secrets and awarded $200,000 against Mr. (Stephen) Szymanski, personally.»
Szymanski ran Prysmian's optical fiber cable business in North America, and joined Sterlite, a direct competitor, in August 2020.
«This case came down to the basic principle of right versus wrong, and we are pleased that the jury came to this decision,» said Andrea Pirondini, Prysmian North
