On February 14, according to media reports, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) filed a lawsuit against honeycomb energy. The cause of the case is unfair competition, and the case will be heard this month.
According to several court decisions, from 2018 to 2019, a total of nine Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) employees joined Wuxi Tianhong Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Wuxi Tianhong) and Baoding Yixin Consulting Service Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Baoding Yixin) to provide services for Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) competitor honeycomb energy.
According to tianyancha data, the legal representative of Baoding Yixin is Yang Hongxin, general manager of honeycomb energy, a power battery enterprise of Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) . Baoding Huayi Tourism Development Co., Ltd. used to be the controlling shareholder of Wuxi Tianhong, but the contact number of Huayi tourism is the same as that of Baoding Great Wall Holding Group Co., Ltd. and Baoding Great Wall real estate development and Construction Group Co., Ltd.
It is reported that according to the evidence provided by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) , the court found that there was a substantial relationship between Baoding Yixin and honeycomb energy company. It is reported that Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) has signed a non competition agreement with the above nine employees, and the non competition period is between 3 months and 24 months. However, the above employees have joined Baoding Yixin and Wuxi Tianhong respectively before the non competition period expires. Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) therefore, it is believed that the nine people have violated the confidentiality and non competition agreement signed with them, so they are required to compensate 1 million yuan for breach of contract.
According to media reports, the results of the first instance showed that the compensation received by each employee ranged from 30000 to 100000. In the counterclaim, employee y said that his monthly salary in Ningde new energy company was 8000 yuan, and his total labor remuneration was 180000 yuan.
As early as 2019, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) applied for labor arbitration to the local labor and personnel dispute arbitration committee for the violation of the non competition agreement by some employees involved. Due to dissatisfaction with the arbitration results, some employees involved filed an appeal in the local court of Ningde in 2020 and requested to revoke the above award of the Arbitration Commission, but they lost the first and second instance. It is worth noting that Baoding Yixin was cancelled in June 2021, and Baoding Huayi Tourism Development Co., Ltd. withdrew its shares from Wuxi Tianhong on February 1, 2021.
For the specific situation and latest progress of the event, on February 15, times finance called Baoding Yixin and Wuxi Tianhong respectively, but the phone was not connected. On the same day, times finance and economics sent an interview to Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) and honeycomb energy, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) said that “there is no more response to the case in the legal process”. Honeycomb energy told times finance, “we have paid attention to the media reports and the company has been operating legally and in compliance. Our relevant departments are actively preparing for a court hearing and believe that the law will have a fair judgment”.
“Signing a non competition agreement is now a common phenomenon in the industry. Basically, core employees and senior executives will be required to sign a non competition agreement. The period of non competition will be adjusted according to personnel conditions, up to 24 months.” Insiders of power battery enterprises told times finance that “the scope of restrictions covers power battery enterprises, downstream vehicle enterprises, etc.”.
Some insiders said that it is reasonable for employees who master trade secrets and core technologies to sign a competition agreement when they change jobs to a competitive enterprise, which is easy to cause great losses to the company. However, employees of power battery enterprises complained to times finance that after signing the competition agreement, it means that they have no choice but to work for the current company. After all, lithium battery technology is updated quickly and the competition restriction period is long. Once missed or not exposed to new knowledge for a long time, it is easy to be left behind by the industry.
“Non core employees themselves are not involved in the business secrets and senior management of the enterprise, and they do not enjoy the corresponding salary treatment of the enterprise during their employment. There is no reason why they cannot choose employment opportunities independently after leaving. In order to safeguard their own interests, enterprises cannot excessively restrict the freedom of employment of workers, especially ordinary workers.” Gu Guohong, vice president of Qingdao Automotive Research Institute of Jilin University, recently wrote that, “What is particularly important is that the abuse of competition restrictions by enterprises will restrict the flow of talents, which will have a negative impact on social and economic development in the long run. California Silicon Valley, which denies the effectiveness of the non competition agreement, has already formed a ‘talent flow culture’ among major factories, which directly improves the talent density and innovation of the whole silicon valley.”.
Meanwhile, it is reported that in addition to honeycomb energy, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) previously sued Tafel new energy and AVIC lithium battery for patent infringement in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Headhunters told times finance that at present, more than 20 enterprises, including China Innovation airlines, are on the recruitment blacklist of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) , and their employees cannot join Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) immediately after leaving. “This is because many lithium battery companies do not deal with each other and basically do not allow each other to dig”. However, some people in the industry told times finance that “they have not heard what the headhunter said, and the prohibition of recruitment may be that the headhunter company unilaterally set a gateway in advance for fear of subsequent trouble”.
It is worth mentioning that whether it is “competition law” or “patent stick”, they are behind the means taken by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) to stabilize its position in the industry under the background of white hot competition in the power battery industry.
According to the ranking list of global power battery installed capacity in 2021 released by SNE research, a Korean market research institution, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) the installed capacity in 2021 reached 96.7gwh, a year-on-year increase of 167.13% and a market share of 32.6%, ranking first in the world. LG new energy, Panasonic, Byd Company Limited(002594) , SK on, Samsung SDI, China Innovation airlines, Gotion High-Tech Co.Ltd(002074) , vision power and honeycomb energy ranked second to tenth. Among them, although the installed capacity of honeycomb energy in 2021 is only 3.1gwh, which is far from Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) , its growth rate is rapid, with a year-on-year increase of 416.67% compared with that in 2020.
