Koninklijke Philips v Belkin International (CFI, 18 December 2024)

Dhenne Avocats · 10 October 2026

Our analysis

Summary

By an order of 17 December 2024 (UPC_CFI_390/2023, App_60589/2024), the Munich Local Division imposed a penalty payment of EUR 46,000 on Belkin International, Belkin GmbH and Belkin Limited, at the request of Koninklijke Philips, for late and incomplete compliance with the order to provide information in the decision on the merits of 13 September 2024 (EP 2 867 997). The order holds that a penalty under Art. 82 UPCA serves both to compel and to punish, and that information must be expressly requested in electronic form.

Question

Do delivery of the information on paper, its lateness and its incompleteness justify a penalty, and may a penalty punish past non-compliance?

Decision

Neither Art. 67 UPCA nor the Rules of Procedure prescribe a form: absent an express request and a specific operative part, the defendants were entitled to deliver 16 boxes of paper invoices, since a penalty requires an unambiguous order (Art. 7 ECHR, Art. 49(1) of the Charter). The delay, however, was culpable: an application for suspensive effect does not suspend enforcement (Art. 74(1)), and the tolerated delay ended when the Court of Appeal refused it on 30 October 2024. The undisputed omission of purchase prices made the information incomplete. The penalty, proportionate to the importance of the order (Art. 82(4)), was set at EUR 500 per day for 26 days and then EUR 1,500 per day for 22 days. Costs were split 25% and 75%, and leave to appeal was granted.

Key points for practice

• A penalty may punish past non-compliance, even where the information has eventually been provided.
• Practical point: a patentee wanting usable information should expressly ask, already in the action on the merits, for it to be supplied in electronic form.

Provisions applied

Agreement on a Unified Patent Court

Art. 67, Art. 69, Art. 74(1) and Art. 82(4)

Rules of Procedure

Rules 118.8, 264, 354.1, 354.3 and 354.4

Case law cited

Düsseldorf Local Division (UPC_CFI_177/2023), UPC_CFI_15/2023, Court of Appeal (UPC_CoA_549/2024), on suspensive effect in the same case

Related decisions

• Koninklijke Philips v Belkin, 13 September 2024, decision on the merits ordering the provision of information.

Prepared by Dhenne Avocats from the official decision, consulted on 10 October 2026. The database is updated every week, on Friday. Only the official text is authoritative.