A member of the GAZ automobile group, the Gorky Automobile Plant, has filed a lawsuit against Volkswagen in Russia. The plant is looking to recover 28.4 billion roubles ($347.7 million USD at current exchange rates) over issues stemming from the German automaker’s exit from the country.
The Gorky Automobile Plant had a contract to assemble vehicles for VW, reports Reuters, but the Russian government’s decision to invade Ukraine and the subsequent international sanctions against the country, forced the automaker to exit the market.
Details of the lawsuit, which was filed with the Nizhny Novgorod regional court last week, have yet to be published. This is the second lawsuit that VW faces in Russia from the GAZ Group.
Read: Russian Court Freezes VW Assets, Throwing Road Block In Automaker’s Escape Route
In a separate suit, filed late last month, GAZ wrote that VW’s efforts to exit the market put its interests at risk. In that case, it is seeking 15.6 billion roubles ($191 million USD) in damages over a terminated contract related to its plant in Nizhny Novgorod.
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, a Russian court agreed to freeze all of VW’s assets in the country, while the dispute is sorted out, which has slowed the German automaker’s efforts to exit Russia.
At the time of the first lawsuit, Volkswagen’s Russian subsidiary said it was surprised by the legal action since it and GAZ had ended their partnership “on mutually-agreed terms.” Meanwhile, the VW Group said it had been in the process of selling its stake in the Russian subsidiary to a “trustworthy Russian investor.”
Among the assets being sold was a plant at which 4,000 people worked. Volkswagen said it hoped that the freeze would not delay a transaction.
