Russia’s Yandex says not guilty in soliciting Zvooq’s employees

MOSCOW, Nov 17 (PRIME) -- Russian Internet giant Yandex has denied accusations of music service Zvooq, which filed a U.S. $29 million lawsuit against the company for breaking a nonsolicitation agreement, Yandex’s press secretary Asya Melkumova said late on Wednesday.

“All recent statements of Zvooq are grounded on populist rhetoric and are not true. We’ll respond at court to all the legal requests, because we’re sure about our position,” Melkumova said.

Yandex was taken aback by the lawsuit, because the company did not abuse any agreements with Zvooq, including enticement of employees, she said.

Zvooq submitted the suit against Yandex LLC to a Cypriot court demanding compensation for violation of the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), signed by the partners in February within an information sharing procedure, when Yandex was thinking to buy the music service.

The agreement obliged Yandex not to interact with Zvooq’s employees, offer them any positions or hire them, Zvooq said in a statement. Marketing Director Varvara Semenikhina received an invitation from Yandex and took the position of head of marketing at Yandex.Music. Konstantin Ryabinin, who used to be technical director at Zvooq, also moved to Yandex as head of Search projects.

Zvooq said the two executives were key employees of the service, and Yandex caused serious material damage to the company and broke the competition rules.

Semenikhina said on her Facebook page that Zvooq’s statement is not correct, and she had decided to quit long before submitting a CV toYandex.

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