Swatch Wins Ruling to Have Case Heard in Swiss Court

ZURICH, Switzerland — Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group won a partial victory in a row with a British group over supplying parts to independent repairers when Switzerland's highest court ruled the case should be heard by a domestic court.

Swatch has been locked in a legal battle with Britain's Cousins UK, which sells watch spare parts to independent repairers and said it stopped receiving supplies from Swatch and its ETA movement unit in late 2015.

Cousins UK had threatened to sue Swatch at the High Court in London to force the resumption of supplies, but Swatch prevented this by starting a procedure to have the case heard by a commercial court in the Swiss capital, Bern.

The Bern court had declined to take up the case, saying Swatch had not shown sufficient cause for a local trial, but Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court ruled in a verdict announced on Tuesday that Swatch had a sufficient interest in having the case heard in Switzerland.

The case will now revert to the court in Bern.

By Michael Shields and Silke Koltrowitz; editor: Jason Neely.