Baltika asked the court to prohibit Carlsberg from depriving it of rights to some of its global brands

The Danish holding Carlsberg Group may deprive the Baltika brewing company in Russia of the rights to some of the global brands, including Tuborg. About it reported “Kommersant” with reference to the ruling of the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region dated September 25, 2023, where Baltika had previously applied with a request to prohibit Rospatent from making changes to contracts for the brands Tuborg, Kronenbourg, Seth & Riley’s Garage, Holsten and LAV .

In addition, Baltika asked to prohibit Carlsberg from initiating a process in Denmark to terminate the framework license agreement. The basis for such measures was the significant damage to the company that it would suffer as a result of “the jurisdiction of disputes in Denmark and their termination.” The court refused interim measures.

According to the publication, at present there is no information in the Danish courts about possible claims by Carlsberg demanding the revoking of licenses from Baltika. The holding itself assured on September 29 that no legal action had yet been taken in this regard. Despite this, Baltika is afraid of revoking the license for global brands.

As Konstantin Suvorov, a partner at the law firm Kosenkov and Suvorov, explained, “if there is a ban by a Russian court on conducting proceedings in Denmark, the results of disputes in the court of this country on the termination of a framework license should not be recognized and enforced in Russia.”

In mid-July, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decree on the transfer to temporary management of the state of shares belonging to the structures of the Carlsberg Group. On July 18, it became known that the president of Baltika appointed Taimuraz Bolloev, who led the company from 1991 to 2004. After this, the Carlsberg Group reported that the change of management at the Russian enterprise occurred without the knowledge or approval of the holding.

Carlsberg Group in March 2022 announced its intentions to leave the Russian market. In June 2023, the company reported that signed agreement on the sale of Russian business. However, the name of the buyer was not disclosed at that time. Carlsberg clarified that the timing of completion of the transaction “remains uncertain”, as it must go through the approval process from Russian government and regulatory authorities in a number of jurisdictions.