In AccessData Corporation v. ALSTE Technologies GmbH, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4566 (D. Utah Jan. 21, 2010) the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, Central Division, compelled the production of personal information about customers of the German defendant after finding that German laws did not necessarily bar the production of such information and that the Hague Convention did not apply to the requested discovery.
In this breach of contract case, AccessData claimed that ALSTE, a German corporation, owed nearly
$80,000 in unpaid invoices for reselling software manufactured by AccessData to ALSTE customers.
In response, ALSTE alleged that the software was defective, and counterclaimed that AccessData
violated a separate agreement by failing to pay ALSTE for providing technical support to certain users
of the software in Germany.During discovery, AccessData sought information regarding customer complaints and related injuries.
ALSTE’s objections included that disclosing information relating to its customers and their employees
would violate German law. AccessData then moved to compel.
Read the eData NewsFlash by Morgan Lewis (pdf).