Tesla Sued in London Over Highway Supercharger Implementation

Mar 27, 2015 10:41 AM EDT | Matt Mercuro

Tesla was sued in London this week over a dispute regarding if the company interfered with a competitor's plan to introduce electric-car chargers at U.K. highway rest stops.

On March 25, Judge Vivien Rose ordered Palo Alto, California-based Tesla to look for documents about meetings and discussions with other companies that involved setting up its own network of superchargers for its EVs, Bloomberg reported.

Ecotricity claims in its lawsuit that Tesla used its confidential information and tried to convince companies like Welcome Break Group and other rest-stop companies to breach agreements with Ecotricity for exclusive superchargers in 2014.

Tesla introduced its $74,450 Model S in the U.K. last year.

"There do seem to have been meetings in October 2014" with motorway service providers, Rose said to the media outlet. "Something more is needed to be absolutely sure that there's nothing more."

Tesla is spending billions of dollars on the largest battery factory in the world and has publicly called the European market the most important to its global growth.

Company spokesman Ricardo Reyes told Bloomberg that Tesla won orders against Ecotricity, which includes requiring the company to provide financial records, evidence of any loss and strategy documents.

"The main focus of the hearing was our antitrust claim against Ecotricity and we won the vast majority of the matters before the court," he said to Bloomberg.

Meanwhile Tesla has already countersued Ecotricity and accused the U.K.-based company of acting abusively in its position as a main supplier. Tesla maintains that it didn't misuse any confidential information provided by Ecotricity and didn't try to convince companies to break contracts with the firm.

The case is Ecotricity Group Ltd. v. Tesla Motors Inc., U.K. High Court of Justice, Chancery Division.

Earlier this month, Tesla's Supercharger network reached a major milestone of 2,000 Superchargers located at 400 Supercharger stations around the world.

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