The Moscow arbitration court rejected the claim of the owner of the Samara shopping center against H&M

The Moscow Arbitration Court refused to satisfy the claim of Gudok, a member of the investment company Victor and Co. (which owns a shopping center of the same name in Samara), against the structure of the Swedish retailer H&M for the recovery of 295.6 million rubles from it. He made the corresponding decision on November 7. The motivational part has not yet been published, but from the operative part it follows that Gudok LLC must transfer 572,494 rubles to the opponent. unjust enrichment. Representatives of the parties did not respond to requests.

The owner of the Samara “Gudk” filed a lawsuit against H&M in February of this year. The company demanded that the defendant pay it 218 million rubles. losses and 77 million unjust enrichment in connection with the suspension of the Swedish retailer’s store in March 2022 and the early termination of the lease agreement in August last year. H&M, in turn, announced its withdrawal from Russia, closing all 185 stores in the country.

According to court materials, the lease agreement for the premises was recognized as terminated early by agreement of the parties, explains the decision of the Moscow arbitration, lawyer of the Asterisk law office Sofya Volkova. Forward Legal lawyer Danil Bukharin suggests that the contract most likely included the possibility of abandoning the premises at any time. In this case, the owner of the shopping center, in his opinion, hardly has a chance of winning in the appeal court. Volkova also believes that the decision will most likely enter into legal force.

This is not the first time that shopping center owners are suing H&M. Previously, the Swedish retailer lost a claim for 215 million rubles. owner of the Dream Island entertainment complex. At the moment, this is the largest compensation from a foreign retailer who left Russia for termination of a lease agreement. H&M itself estimated the costs of winding down its business in the country at approximately 2 billion Swedish kronor (about 11 billion rubles). And Infoline-analyst believed that its total losses, taking into account the costs of terminating lease agreements, amounted to 45 billion rubles.

Owners of retail properties are also trying to compensate for their losses in disputes with other foreign retailers. Amusement Park LLC (owns Dream Island) is demanding almost 3.5 billion rubles from Adidas; a decision on this case has not yet been made. In most cases, the tenant and the landlord reach an agreement out of court on mutually beneficial terms, Bukharin notes. As an example, he cites the claim of one of the structures of the company “Victor and Co” against the company “Re Trading” (owner of the Reserved, Cropp and Mohito brands) for 500 million rubles. The parties eventually abandoned the litigation, he recalls. A similar situation has arisen with the claims of the owners of other shopping centers against H&M, Inditex, Uniqlo and others.