bhc "17 Wins 1 Loss in Lawsuits Against BBQ... Excessive Filing of Unreasonable Lawsuits"

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] bhc announced on the 19th that it has won or been cleared of charges in 17 out of 21 legal disputes with BBQ that have continued for 8 years. Three cases are currently ongoing, and only one case related to land was lost.

In a press release on the same day, bhc stated, “Most of the lawsuits and accusations filed by BBQ are related to trade secret infringement, and BBQ is recklessly filing lawsuits and accusations to eliminate competitors,” adding, “BBQ has not escaped criticism for using national judicial institutions.”

According to bhc, starting with the accusation of the bhc research director for trade secret infringement in 2013, BBQ filed five accusations related to trade secret infringement against up to 40 bhc executives, including Chairman Park Hyunjong, until 2018, but the prosecution dismissed all charges.

After several trade secret infringement accusations were dismissed, BBQ filed a complaint in 2019 under the Information and Communications Network Act with similar content, but it was also dismissed in November last year. BBQ appealed the prosecution’s dismissal, leading to a reinvestigation order, but on the 12th, the prosecution again dismissed the case, stating that BBQ’s claims were insufficient and lacked evidence.

On the 29th of last month, BBQ lost a trade secret infringement damages lawsuit against bhc. The court did not recognize any of the claims in the first trial of the 100 billion KRW damages suit filed by BBQ against bhc for trade secret infringement.

On the other hand, bhc filed lawsuits in 2017 and 2018 claiming damages for product supply payments and logistics service fees, respectively, due to BBQ’s unilateral unfair termination of logistics and product supply contracts. Among these, in January, the court ruled that BBQ was liable for damages to bhc for the unilateral termination and ordered compensation of 34 billion KRW in the product supply payment lawsuit.

bhc said, “We plan to respond to BBQ legally only and focus more on our core business,” adding, “We will concentrate on growing as a leading company in the franchise industry based on compliance, transparency, and win-win management.”