F310FC56-9E38-434C-8798-935F26432060

SK Innovation stole a technology that
LG Energy Solution spent billions
of dollars over decades developing.

*But only if we protect trade secrets.

*But only if we protect trade secrets.

Following that theft, SK Innovation knowingly conspired to obstruct justice by destroying evidence.

LGES: COMMITTED TO ENGINEERING A BETTER TOMORROW

LG Chem, from which LG Energy Solution was spun off in 2020, began mass producing Korea’s first lithium-ion batteries in 1999–a full six years before SKI entered the market.

By 2011, LG Chem had become the world’s third-largest battery maker.

In 2019 the company entered into joint venture with General Motors to produce lithium-ion cells for electric vehicles at a major manufacturing facility in Ohio. A year later, LG Chem had become the largest provider of batteries for electric vehicles in the world.

Beginning in 2016, SK Innovation begins hiring dozens of LG Chem engineers and critical business services staff. An internal audit revealed some of these employees downloaded 400 to 1,900 key technical documents from LG Chem’s data servers before their move to SK.

SK Innovation’s aggregated amount of EV battery supply in contract increased by more than 14 times between 2016, when it began misappropriating LG Chem’s trade secrets, and 2019, when it announced plans to build a major manufacturing plant in Georgia.

In April 2019, LG Chem filed a pair of federal lawsuits alleging SKI’s trade secret misappropriation. The very next day, one SKI executive emailed staff: "Delete every material related to the rival company from every single individual's PC, mail storage archives and team rooms. ASAP. ... Delete this email after completing this direction."

SK Innovation stole in just a few years a technological know-how that LG Chem spent decades developing. It gave them an unfair and unlawful advantage when pursuing customers in the United States and across the world.

After a trial and exhaustive two-year investigation, the USITC sided with LG Energy Solution.

But LGES wasn’t the only victim of SKI’s misdeeds.

SK Innovation had previously said it would employ 2,600 workers by 2024 at a new manufacturing facility in Commerce, Georgia. Now, it says the USITC recent decision means the plant will close. That’s not true.

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