Westcon, Lucent In Court Battle

Westcon intends to litigate a lawsuit it filed last July in New Jersey Superior Court, Essex County, said Alan Marc Smith, CEO of Westcon Group.

"This is not a little 'sweep-it-under-the-carpet-and-hope-it's-going-to-go-away' situation," Smith said.

Westcon alleges that Lucent sold Westcon tens of millions of dollars of networking products that were soon after discontinued and therefore not resellable as new, Smith said.

"The reason behind the lawsuit is Lucent's failure to live up to its obligations under its contract with us," Smith said.

"If this is not resolved amicably, it will be the end of our relationship with Lucent," which began in September 1998, Smith said.

This is the first lawsuit Westcon has brought against Lucent and one of the largest it has filed against a vendor, Smith said.

The complaint alleges that Lucent failed to promptly advise Westcon about product discontinuations, modifications and price changes. In addition, Lucent would not authorize Westcon to return the products and refused to credit or replace the products as stated in the companies' distribution agreement, according to documents filed with the court.

"As a result of Lucent's failure to provide Westcon with such notice [of discontinuance, Westcon has worthless inventory that is not saleable," according to court documents.

"It sounds like it's still new equipment, but it's end-of-life [products, and no one wants to buy end-of-life products," said John Spiridgliozzi, product marketing director at CableExpress Technologies, a solution provider based in Syracuse, N.Y.

Lucent executives declined to comment about specifics in the lawsuit. "This lawsuit is completely without merit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously," a spokesperson said.