Antwerp Court Extends Sightholder Six Month Transitional Period
November 18, 03
An Antwerp court has ruled yesterday that the DTC cannot end its relationship with an Antwerp Sightholder after a six month notice, saying they should be supplied rough at least until September 2004, giving them a nine months extension.
The ruling further asserts that these additional nine months can be extended implicitly – until there is a final ruling in the case.
The interim ruling is in the case of a diamond company based in Antwerp, according to Tacy the company is rough diamond dealer A. Spira Diamanthandel Bvba.
Transitional Sightholders, those Sightholders that were dropped from the Sightholder list in June, were given five Sights before being finally cut off after Sight 10 in December 2003.
A De Beers spokesperson told IDEX Online “the outcome of these proceedings does not mean that a decision on the merits of the complaint brought by this client has been made. In particular, it does not represent a finding that the Supplier of Choice arrangements are in any way flawed”.
The precedent setting ruling is significant in at least two ways. First, it could give other transitional Sightholders grounds to demand to be supplied with rough diamonds for an additional nine months from the DTC.
But perhaps more significant is the fact that De Beers can be sued outside of England, making such legal actions more excisable to Sightholders around the world, and possibly complicating the issue for De Beers being exposed to a whole variety of laws that might treat the issue in different ways, distracting the company’s legal team from one concentrated and focused effort.
Such actions are considered to be relatively simpler and less complicated in Antwerp and could boost the case of other transitional Sightholders such as IDH Diamonds that filed a complaint with the EC over Supplier of Choice.
De Beers plans to appeal the interim ruling, saying it is confident that the appeals court will overturn the decision.
A. Spira Diamanthandel Bvba refused to comment on this unfolding story.