GE Sues Siemens Energy For Allegedly Stealing Gas-Turbine Trade Secrets

(RTTNews) - General Electric Co. filed a lawsuit against Siemens Energy AG, accusing the German power distribution company of stealing trade secrets for gas turbines. Siemens Energy allegedly used the information to get at least nine contracts to supply gas turbines to public utilities, and also covered up improper business gains.

Following the news, shares of Siemens Energy, which was spun off from German major Siemens SE recently, were losing around 6 percent in German trading on Friday.

In a lawsuit filed on Thursday in a U.S. district court in Virginia, GE accused the German company's U.S. unit, Siemens Energy Inc., of theft of GE intellectual property tracing back to May 2019.

An account manager at Siemens Energy is said to have received secret information during a confidential bidding process to provide gas turbine equipment and servicing to Virginia power utility Dominion Energy Inc. The information was shared with dozens of colleagues, some of whom used the secrets to alter a bid for lucrative contracts.

According to GE, the alleged stolen trade secrets resulted in it losing a contract worth up to $340 million to provide gas turbine units and maintenance services.

GE further maintained that it was only after 16 months that Siemens disclosed the possession of secret information, and that it unfairly won eight additional deals during this time.

The company said in its complaint, "The sprawling and calculated theft of GE's trade secrets has enabled Siemens to win, so far, billions of dollars of contracts and remains ongoing -- all at the expense of GE's ability to fairly compete."

Siemens Energy reportedly has undertaken an internal investigation into the matter.