Dutch court backs Swatch in row with Tiffany over venture

A Dutch appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Swatch Group deserved compensation in a row with U.S. luxury goods maker Tiffany over a failed watch venture.

An arbitration panel had ordered Tiffany in December 2013 to pay Swatch 402 million Swiss francs ($404.3 million) in damages over the project to produce and market watches, but a lower Dutch court set aside the ruling in 2015.

Swatch appealed against that decision and has now won the appeal, a spokesman for the court in Amsterdam said.

"Swatch Group was convinced that the arbitration award of December 21, 2013 was issued correctly and contained no formal error. This was confirmed by the judgement of the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam today," the Swiss group said in a statement.

Swatch had booked the money as one-off income in 2013.

Swatch shares rose 2 percent by 0925 GMT.

Tiffany was not immediately available for comment.

($1 = 0.9943 Swiss francs)