2023-10-17 - Court of - Ocado Innovation v. AutoStore - UPC_CFI_11/2023
- Aktenzeichen:
- UPC_CFI_11/2023
- Datum:
- Spruchkörper:
- Court of First Instance - Nordic Baltic Regional Division
- Art:
- Order
- Parteien:
- OCADO INNOVATION LIMITED v. AUTOSTORE AS
Kernaussage: application under Rule 262.
2023-10-17 - Court of - Ocado Innovation
v.
AutoStore - UPC_CFI_11/2023
application under Rule 262.1(b) for access to pleadings or evidence
landmark
The Nordic-Baltic Regional Division (judge-rapporteur Johansson) held that Art. 45 UPCA means even the written phase of UPC proceedings is, in principle, open to the public, and that a 'reasoned request' under Rule 262.1(b) RoP requires only a 'credible explanation' from the applicant; access shall be granted unless it is necessary to keep the information confidential. Applying this public-access-as-default approach, the NBRD granted a third party's request for the statement of claim in a settled Ocado v. AutoStore infringement action (subject to GDPR redaction), but rejected the request for orders already published under R. 262.1(a) and for orders in parallel cases in Düsseldorf and Milan, which can only be decided by the judge-rapporteur in those cases. To preserve the right to seek suspensive effect on appeal (Art. 74 UPCA; Rule 223 RoP), the NBRD deferred actual delivery of the document by 21 days and granted leave to appeal. The decision openly departs from the more restrictive Munich CD order of 20 September 2023 and is a landmark on UPC transparency.