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.
