                             højesterets dom
                          afsagt fredag den 30. januar 2015
sag 194/2013
(1. afdeling)
woori hearing aid co., ltd.
(advokat karsten thomas henriksen)
mod
oticon a/s
(advokat mathias steinø)
i tidligere instans er afsagt dom af sø- og handelsretten den 15. juli 2013.
i pådømmelsen har deltaget fem dommere: poul søgaard, niels grubbe, jon stokholm, lars
hjortnæs og kurt rasmussen.
påstande
appellanten, woori hearing aid co., ltd., har gentaget sin påstand om frifindelse.
indstævnte, oticon a/s, har påstået stadfæstelse.
anbringender
woori hearing aid co., ltd. har supplerende anført bl.a., at seoul high courts afgørelse af
21. februar 2011 har positiv retskraft eller præjudikatvirkning og derfor skal lægges til grund
ved højesterets afgørelse. woori frafalder anbringendet om, at afgørelsen har negativ retskraft
og dermed skal føre til sagens afvisning.
woori fastholder, at opsigelsen var ugyldig, og at oticon var i misligholdelse ved at opsige
aftalen og ved ikke at bekræfte at ville levere efter betaling af skyldige fakturabeløb. woori
                                               - 2 -
frafalder anbringendet om, at opsigelsesvarslet var for kort, og anbringendet om, at det var
kutyme, at oticon havde pligt til at levere uanset udestående forfaldne fakturakrav.
oticon kan tidligst kræve rente fra sagens anlæg, og der kan alene kræves procesrente. be-
stemmelsen i aftalen om 2 % rente pr. påbegyndt måned kan ikke påberåbes af oticon på
grund af oticons adfærd i forbindelse med kommunikationen med jin kyun park bag ryggen
på ejeren af woori, chung wook kim.
oticon a/s har gentaget sine anbringender.
supplerende sagsfremstilling
woori har under sagen fremlagt en række mails for perioden november 2008 til starten af
april 2009 mellem medarbejdere hos oticon og jin kyun park, der var ansat hos woori.
chung wook kim har i en mail af 16. april 2009 til oticon oplyst, at jin kyun park da ikke
længere var ansat hos woori.
brevet af 27. april 2009 fra oticon til woori fremtræder som et udkast til en aftale. på den
sidste side har peter ladischensky skrevet under, og der er afsat plads til underskrift af chung
wook kim. det hedder i brevet bl.a.:
       ” confidential and subject to contract
       woori hearing aid company (”woori”) - indicative offer
       dear mr. kim,
       thank you for meeting with us at the hearing aid convention in the usa. we need to
       repeat what we mentioned at the meeting that we feel that oticon is not achieving the
       maximum of its potential for hearing aid sales in korea. we believe a 20-25% market
       share is appropriate for oticon in korea and woori currently holds 6-7% market share.
       on this basis oticon have now taken a dicision to go forward and establish oticon ko-
       rea in 2009. however we have agreed at our meeting in the us to provide woori with a
       last opportunity to prove that they can achieve the growth we are expecting. in particu-
       lar we have agreed that if woori in 2009 can sell 6,000 hearing aids at unchanged exter-
       nal prices and continue the same unit sales growth equal to 2,000 units annually mean-
       ing for 2010 woori must sell 8,000 units. we will postpone the establishment of oticon
       korea until such day as we see the annual growth of 2,000 units in sales by woori
       slowing down before the target market share of 20-25% is achieved.
                                         - 3 -
we have agreed to meet in august/september to review the sales of woori. in case we
are not convinced at that time that woori will achieve sales of 6,000 units in 2009 we
would like to acquire the hearing aid business from you and build oticon korea from
that platform. in order to prepare for our decisions in september we would like to start a
mini due diligence to become convinced of the financial stability of woori. at the same
time we kindly ask you to forward monthly management accounts that is a full profit
and loss for the woori business every month so we are able to track performance
against the plan.
oticon is hereby pleased to provide you with the revised following indicative and non-
binding offer for 100% of the company woori hearing aid company. revisions have
been introduced in section 3 below.
we must reiterate that if we cannot reach agreement on the terms in this indicative offer
we may have to terminate the distribution agreement with woori in korea.
1. basis for the preliminary indicative offer
…
2. prelimenary indicative offer for 100% of the assets
…
3. conditions precedent
we have agreed to the following conditions needs to be met in order to finalize any
transaction between the parties.
 •   we have agreed that the dicision to acquire woori will only become effective
     should you not achieve sales of 6,000 hearing aids in 2009 at average selling price
     at least equal to 2008 average selling price or until such day as we see the annual
     growth of 2,000 units in sales by woori slowing down before the target market
     share of 20-25% is achieved
 •   we have agreed that you will forward due diligence information to us now to con-
     vince us about the financial stability of woori. a due diligence material request list
     will be forwarded
 •   on a monthly basis the monthly management account that is the profit and loss of
     woori shall be forwarded to oticon in copenhagen
 •   we shall meet in august/september 2009 to review likelihood of achieving the
     6,000 unit sales target that is we expect the unit sales of woori after august to be
     around 4,000 units
4. future collaboration between oticon and kim
we hope you will be interested in continuing the collaboration between you and oticon
by operating one or more of the retail clinics. as we think you have a strength in the
retail segment of the hearing aid market we are interested in discussing with you how
we could divest one of the retail offices to you and you can use this as a platform for
further growth using oticon korea as your main supplier
                                                - 4 -
      5. other assumptions and conditions
      …
      6. projected timetable and deadline
      oticon proposes the following timetable to apply for the continuing process:
      april 2009                      woori countersigns the indicative offer
      may 2009                        woori forwards due diligence material based on
                                      request list
      monthly rest of the             woori forwards monthly financial information
      year
      august/september                meeting with oticon and woori to agree on likelihood of
      2009                            achieving the target for 2009 equal to 6000 units
      september 2009                  if the 6,000 units seems unlikely to be achieved, a draft
                                      sale and purchase agreement to be delivered by oticon to
                                      the shareholders of woori
      october 2009                    signing of the sale and purchase agreement
      november 2010                   closing and payment of the consideration
      this indicative offer expires automatically on 07 may 2009 at 18.00 (cet), unless the
      shareholders in woori prior hereto have provided oticon with a signed letter of accep-
      tance.
      7. confidentiality and non-binding
      …
      the offer set out herein is indicative for discussion purposes only and does not consti-
      tute a legally binding offer to purchase or to enter into a potential transaction. nothing
      in this letter shall impose or be constructed to impose upon oticon any obligation or lia-
      bility with respect to any potential transaction or agreement, unless and until a final and
      detailed agreement is executed and delivered by authorised representatives of oticon.
      oticon may at any time end discussions or negotiations without having to give any rea-
      son for doing so and without incurring any liability for the payment of damages or the
      reimbursement of costs or expenses of any kind whatsoever.
      finally, oticon would once again like to thank you for the good collaboration we have
      had for several years. oticon hopes the proposal meets your expectations and look for-
      ward to continue the dialogue with you.”.
i brevet af 19. august 2009 fra woori til oticon henviser chung wook kim til en ”agreement
(no; woa 20090403001)”. dette dokument er ikke fremlagt.
                                                - 5 -
højesterets begrundelse og resultat
seoul high courts afgørelse af 21. februar 2011 angår et foreløbigt retsmiddel svarende til et
forbud. højesteret finder, at afgørelsen hverken er bindende efter retsplejelovens § 223 a eller
i øvrigt har afgørende betydning for højesterets afgørelse.
af de grunde, som sø- og handelsretten har anført, tiltræder højesteret, at opsigelsen af af-
talen er gyldig, at woori hearing aid co., ltd. herefter ikke er berettiget til at anvende oti-
con a/s’ navn eller varemærke, og at woori ikke har et økonomisk krav over for oticon i
anledning af aftalens opsigelse og ophør.
højesteret tiltræder endvidere, at oticon ikke er erstatningspligtig for wooris manglende salg,
allerede fordi oticon ikke var forpligtet til at acceptere levering af yderligere produkter i
midten af november 2009, hvor der var betydelige forfaldne og ubetalte fakturabeløb.
højesteret tiltræder endelig, at renten skal beregnes som påstået af oticon.
højesteret stadfæster herefter dommen.
                                      thi kendes for ret:
sø- og handelsrettens dom stadfæstes.
i sagsomkostninger for højesteret skal woori hearing aid co., ltd. betale 150.000 kr. til
oticon a/s.
de idømte beløb skal betales inden 14 dage efter denne højesteretsdoms afsigelse.
sagsomkostningsbeløbene forrentes efter rentelovens § 8 a.
