Great Wall Motor accuses Fiat of stealing its commercial secrets. The Chinese company told reporters it had forwarded the complaint to Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court in June and has also submitted evidence. The evidence in talk is going “to prove that Fiat once instigated espionage to prowl into its research center and take photos of Peri small car that was still under developed”, gasgoo.com reported.
Fiat’s Shanghai office as well as other Fiat executives from China declined to comment on the matter.
Sure, the news appears to be shocking and incriminating against the Italian automaker at first, but we remind you that Fiat is the one that filled a complaint against the Chinese auto firm in 2007 for copyright infringement on the Peri model.
At the time, an Italian court from Turin ruled against Great Wall Motor Co., arguing that the Peri model was a “Panda knockoff”. Subsequently the court ruled that the Chinese model would be banned from selling throughout Europe.
For Fiat to defend its copyrights on the Panda model, the Italian company’s next move was to sue Great Wall Motor Co. in their own country. So the Italian car manufacturer filed a complaint against the Chinese company to Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court, but as frequent with similar cases in China, the court settled the case quickly and in the favor of Great Wall Motor.
What Fiat got at the time was only an order to pay the Chinese court $1,291 in court fees.
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