Henrik Fischer stood on a stage last August and proudly debuted two prototypes designed to launch Fisker’s eponymous EV startup into the mainstream. There was the Pear, a low-cost EV aimed at the masses, and the Alaska, Fisker’s entry into the fuel truck market.
In the weeks that followed, Fisker stopped paying the engineering firm that helped develop those vehicles, according to a previously unreported lawsuit filed in federal court this week. The company, the US subsidiary of German engineering giant Bertrandt AG, also accuses Fisker of illegally maintaining IP related to those vehicles. He is seeking about $13 million in damages.
The lawsuit adds to a slew of legal problems facing Fisker, which is on the brink of bankruptcy. At least 30 lawsuits alleging lemon law violations have been filed, some of which Fisker has already settled. A former manager filed a class action motion claiming unpaid wages. A textile supplier has also sued Fisker for more than $1 million that it claims the EV startup never paid.
The engineers’ lawsuit stands out amid the legal trouble because it suggests financial cracks were already forming within Fisker last August, despite the bold claims its CEO made at the time.
“The lawsuit filed by Bertrandt is without merit,” Matthew DeBord, Fisker’s vice president of communications, said in an email to TechCrunch. “It is a legally untenable and disappointing attempt by a valued partner to extract from Fisker payments and intellectual property to which Bertrandt is not entitled under the relevant agreements or otherwise.” He declined to comment on the other cases.
Bertrand says to complaint filed in Michigan’s Eastern District Court that it entered into a “design and development agreement” with Fisker in May 2022 to provide “engineering, design and development services” to the Pear — a contract worth $35 million, according to a copy of the agreement design and development attached to the lawsuit. (The agreement also shows that Fisker had previously hired Bertrandt to perform a feasibility study, cost analysis, timing proposal and other elements for the Pear EV.)
At some point after the deal was made, Bertrandt says Fisker asked her to do similar work on the Alaska truck. Bertrandt says in the complaint that a formal written agreement was never executed with Fisker for Alaska, but that he provided an offer of $1.66 million that Fisker agreed to pay.
Fisker stopped paying Bertrandt at the end of August 2023, according to the complaint. The company continued to fail to pay invoices through January 31, 2024, bringing the total outstanding to $7,061,443. The engineering firm also alleges that Fisker’s decision to “pause” development work on the Pear and Alaska electric vehicles is an additional breach of contract as it caused Bertrandt delay costs.
Bertrandt says she had a meeting with Fisker on Feb. 6, 2024, where the EV startup “acknowledged its responsibility for paying these invoices and agreed to immediately pay $3,685,000 as a partial payment” — but then never did this payment.
The breach of contract, according to Bertrandt, has cost the engineering firm an additional $5,858,000 in “lost profits, delay costs and incidental damages,” and is therefore seeking $12,919,443 in total damages.
Additionally, the company says it asked Fisker on April 22 to “return all Bertrandt intellectual property” and “certify in writing that Fisker had not retained any hard or electronic copies,” and claims the EV startup “did not do any of the two. .”
“Fisker was unjustly enriched at the expense of Bertrandt,” the company’s lawyers write in the complaint.
Bertrandt isn’t the only supplier to sue Fisker so far.
Georgia-based Corinthian Textiles sued Fischer in Los Angeles Superior Court in early April. The supplier claims to have struck a deal with the EV startup in early 2023 to provide it with “tailored products for use in Fisker’s cars.” It doesn’t specify which products it made for Fisker, but the company’s website does says Its automotive division specializes in floor, trunk and cargo mats, as well as ‘car carpets’.
Corinthian says Fischer “refused and continues[s] to refuse’ to pay invoices and other fees in the amount of $1,077,571.75.
I work overtime
Days before Bertrandt sued in federal court, Robert Lee, an employee who worked at Fisker from October 2023 to March 5, 2024, filed a proposed group action complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging workers are overworked and not properly compensated. The lawsuit also alleges that Fisker failed to reimburse expenses and pay back wages when employees left the company.
Lee claims that he and other hourly workers worked “over” eight hours a day and 40 hours a week, and instead often worked more than 12 hours a day. He claims they were “often forced” to work on weekends. Fisker did not compensate workers for that extra time, according to the complaint. Lee also alleges that Fisker failed to properly track work hours, and even deducted commissions from their hourly pay.
It claims that workers were “regularly forced to work around the clock and [Fisker Inc] created a policy to represent fewer hours than the total amount of hours actually worked” in order to “achieve certain goals, generate more sales.”
Lee also alleges that Fisker “effectively forced and coerced its non-exempt employees to work[f]-clock, have their wages deducted, have their wages miscalculated, reduced (equivalent to a missed meal period), or have meal and rest periods waived (or not paid for rest breaks).
lemon Tree
Fisker began getting inundated with lawsuits in California alleging it violated the state’s lemon law as early as last November, which TechCrunch previously reported. The company has begun to settle some of those past lawsuits in what amounts to a buyback of the vehicles, according to court filings and a person familiar with the settlements.
More lemon lawsuits continued to flood across the state, where Fisker has delivered most of its cars in the United States.
Customers may have taken action in other states where Fisker has delivered cars, including New York, Florida and Massachusetts. Those states require lemon law disputes to go through arbitration, making it difficult to know how many lawsuits may be pending against the company.
In its recent 2023 annual filing, Fisker noted that it is still defending against a proposed class action by shareholders alleging violations of securities laws. Fischer goes on to say vaguely that “[v]Various other legal actions, claims and proceedings are pending against the Company, including but not limited to matters arising out of alleged product defects. employment-related matters; product warranties; and consumer protection laws’.
It also implied that unnamed government agencies have been contacted for information about its activities, including subpoenas, in a new line of text it had never included in any of its previous SEC filings.
“The Company also occasionally receives subpoenas and other inquiries or requests for information from agencies or other representatives of the U.S. federal, state and foreign governments,” the company wrote. DeBord, the vice president of communications, told TechCrunch that Fisker “currently [has] there are no pending subpoenas from governments.”
Correction: The article incorrectly identified Robert Lee as Fisker’s former director of technical services. Li, who filed the lawsuit, is an employee who worked at Fisker from October 2023 to March 5, 2024. The article has been corrected.
