(Yicai Global) Nov. 5 -- Longi Green Energy’s shares fell after its Netherlands unit received a temporary cross-border injunction from Rotterdam’s court, which gave a first-instance verdict on a patent dispute between the Chinese solar panel giant and a South Korean competitor.

Longi Green Energy [SHA: 601012] closed down 2.7 percent at CNY90 (USD14.06) today, after earlier sliding as much as 6.8 percent. The Shanghai stock market lost 1 percent.

Court bailiffs served Longi Netherlands Trading with the temporary injunction on Nov. 3, which takes effect one working day after the date of delivery, Xi’an-based Longi said in a statement late yesterday.

The Court of Rotterdam ruled partly in favor of the plaintiff, Hanwha Solutions, in accordance with a written judgement published online on Oct. 7, banning sales of some Longi-made solar modules in nine European countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Liechtenstein, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.

Hanwha Solutions, formerly Hanwha Qcells and Advanced Materials, has been feuding with Longi since March 2019 over technologies used in the latter’s photovoltaic products and has sued the Chinese firm and its units in various countries.

The Court of Rotterdam made the judgement based on a first-instance verdict from the regional Landgericht court of Düsseldorf in Germany on June 16. Longi is appealing the German court’s decision to lift the temporary cross-border injunction as soon as possible, it said in a statement last month.

According to that statement, the United States International Trade Commission and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had dismissed the plaintiff’s appeal. But lawsuits are still pending at the Federal Court of Australia and the Court of Paris.

The temporary injunction is not expected to have a substantial impact on Shanghai-listed Longi’s operation, it said yesterday. The verdict targets the company’s Dutch subsidiary, with other units not subject to any restrictions. The company has the ability to sidestep these patent disputes with alternative technologies, it added.

Longi has been hit by troubles recently. Even before the Dutch court’s ban came into effect, some of its solar panel exports to the United States were seized by US customs on Oct. 28.

Thanks to an established product traceability management process, however, Longi has the ability to prove that the silicon raw materials used in the component products temporarily detained by US customs meet US government regulatory requirements, Longi said in a statement on Nov. 3.

Editor: Peter Thomas