Linglong Sues Horizon Tire

Time: June 26th  2015   Copy editor: Tyrefull

Shandong Linglong Tire Co. filed a lawsuit against Horizon Tire Inc. in Ohio federal court. The tiremaker has sued Horizon Tire for $10 million claiming the tire distributor breached its contract by failing to pay for tires and then trying to hold Linglong to a nonexistent exclusive distribution agreement.

Tire Review has attempted to contact Horizon Tire, but has not received any response.

Linglong said Horizon entered into an agreement to purchase $24.5 million worth of the tiremaker’s Crosswind tires and accepted a $6 million shipment of the product then failed to pay, according to Law360.

In May, Horizon sued Linglong in a California federal court alleging the manufacturer breached another contract that granted Horizon exclusive distribution rights to sell Crosswind tires in the U.S. Linglong said it had negotiated with Horizon to enter into an exclusive distribution agreement but the two parties could not agree on terms, Law360 reported. Linglong said by making false statements to customers and through litigation, Horizon has been trying to gain benefits on an exclusive distribution agreement even through there isn’t one, according to Law360.

"In order to cast doubt on plaintiffs’ ability to do business, Horizon set out in spring 2015 to inform third parties – falsely – that Horizon has an exclusive distribution agreement with Linglong,” Linglong said. “Instead of living up to its contractual obligations to pay Linglong, Horizon has set its sights on disrupting and destroying the fledgling business of Linglong’s American subsidiary.”

However, in an industry story last November, Feng Wang, Shandong Linglong chairman and CEO,  was quoted as stating: “Horizon Tire, our primary marketing arm in the U.S. since 2004, is the exclusive distributor of Linglong and Crosswind in the U.S. Atlas Tire LLC (based in Copley, Ohio) is wholly owned by Linglong.”

Both May’s suit in California and the suit filed in Ohio await further action. 

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