Injunction order passed against Messe Berlin, organisers of ITB India

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

An injunction order has been passed against Messe Berlin, organisers of ITB Berlin, who recently launched ITB India.

Fairfest Media Limited, organisers of the largest travel trade show in India – OTM Mumbai took Messe Berlin, a German State owned company to court for breach of an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), for a proposed collaboration.

Fairfest Media approached the High Court of Bombay earlier this year, for an Injunction against Messe Berlin, to restrain it from using confidential information including client details shared with them in confidence. Fairfest asked for an Injunction to restrain Messe Berlin from conducting ITB India, as it would inevitably benefit from the competitive and confidential information shared under the terms of the NDA.

The High Court referred the matter to a sole Arbitrator, who after hearing detailed arguments from both sides, issued injunction orders restraining Messe Berlin from using the confidential information.  The Arbitrator ruled in favour of Fairfest and restrained Messe Berlin, the organiser of ITB India, from using the confidential information it obtained from Fairfest.

Messe Berlin had challenged the jurisdiction of the Arbitrator. The Arbitrator ruled that it had jurisdiction on issues related to the breach of NDA. The Arbitrator also ruled that it did not deal with the issues related to copyright/trademark and further confidential information obtained by Messe Berlin under a Letter of Intent (LOI) executed later to the NDA, which specifically designated Singapore as the jurisdiction. Fairfest is, however, considering additional litigation to address the above, at appropriate forums in Singapore and in India, for further injunctions and claims for damages in respect of the breach of the terms of the LOI.

The Arbitrator has also ordered Messe Berlin to pay costs to Fairfest.

Fairfest intends to take all necessary steps to ensure that all confidential information, including the private data of its Clients is not misused by Messe Berlin.

Messe Berlin had earlier tried to make a bid to enter Indian markets through a co-branded show called BITB in Delhi in 2017, which was later discontinued.

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