LG, SK Agree to Settle Litigation Over Stolen EV Battery Trade Secrets

Electric vehicle battery supplier SK Innovation will pay LG $1.8 billion in “lump-sum payments and a running royalty” to settle LG allegations in an April 2019 complaint (login required) at the International Trade Commission that it imported lithium-ion EV cells into the U.S. developed through “misappropriated trade secrets” extracted from former LG employees. The ITC in February granted LG’s request for an exclusion order on SK products, which SK vowed to appeal. The companies “agreed to withdraw all pending legal disputes” and to a 10-year period of “non-assertion,” they said Sunday in a joint statement. The settlement “builds confidence" in SK's and LG's "reliability and responsibility as suppliers to the U.S. auto industry," said U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.