Fuchi Accuses Renraku of Stealing! (Bigger deal than you might think)

Megawatch July 4th wrote: Hullo chummers! As we celebrate our country's independence, the magas as well are strutting their independence by trying to screw each other over. As the struggles between megas heats up, out comes the mudslinging! Fuchi Industrial Electronics has OFFICIALLY accused Renraku Computer Systems of corporate espionage. *gasp*!
I know what you are all thinking, "Doesn't that happen all the time?" Well yes it does, but the corps have a sort of gentlemen's agreement that as long as you don't get caught, shadow steals and the like are just part of the business. But if Fuchi is working up the chutzpah to bring charges against Renraku, and can PROVE it... well it's a whole 'nother ball game. See, this brings in the Corporate Court, and you do NOT want to torque off the Court. As you all know, the CC works to keep things relatively peaceful and of course profitable for everyone; but if someone steps too far out of line the court's ultimate power can be brought to bare... and that is the dreaded OMEGA ORDER. Know what that is? The Omega Order declares open season on the offending corp, allowing the remaining megas to take all the weaponry and assets at their disposal to frag the hell out of the offending corp. This order has only ever been given once... and well, that poor corp isn't around anymore.

The upshot is, if the accusation sticks, and they can't come to some sort of agreement, we could be looking at an honest-to-ghost corporate war on our hands.

Watch your heads chummers it's getting more dangerous than usual. As always, a little knowledge can go a long way.

If the Court decides that one of its own AAA members has violated the rules, it has several options.

For minor infractions, the Court orders the Z-OG Bank to increase the bad corp's fees for various services-for example, charging higher interest rates for loans.

For more severe rule-breaking, the Court will delegate two or more AAA megacorps to punish the violator using their security assets, just as might happen to a lesser corp.

For extreme transgressions, the Court issues an Omega Order. This decree, essentially mandate to all AAA corps to punish the offender, makes it open season on the condemned corp. It's the corporate equivalent of a death sentence.

OK so I obviously skipped that civics lesson. What happened the last time the Omega order was given?

And how likely is this to be threats and posturing due to lost market share instead of an honest attempt to impose sanctions?

And how likely are we to see a counter suit? All the megas have to have tons of dirt on each other to dissuade just this sort of thing.

Shadowtalk indicates that in 2042, the Corporate Court issued an Omega Order against an East Jerusalem-based corp named QZE Corporation during the cessation of hostilities initiated by Yamatetsu when it tried to break into the ranks of the Court and its control of the Zurich-Orbital Gemeinschaft Bank.

An Omega Order is a declaration by the Corporate Court authorizing unlimited aggression against one corporation by all other corporations. It serves as a threat to prevent inter-corporate struggles from getting entirely out of hand.

If any national, non-extraterritorial corporate or extraterritorial entity threatens to dramatically destabilize the global economy, an Omega Order may be issued. An Omega Order authorizes limited nuclear and Thor shot exchanges against the offending entity's assets as part of the grant to corps to pursue the offender's total destruction. The Corporate Court also automatically issues an Omega Order against any corporation which has violated one of the Corporate Court's classified laws. As only AAA-rated corporations know the details of those classified laws, it is possible that a smaller corporation might find itself utterly destroyed without ever knowing why.

As for the likelihood of an actual sanction? I would say the chances are pretty slim. As stated it has only happened once before... and there was a near-omega-order level sanction on Aztechnology called Operation Reciprocity. But because it was only a limited show of force, Operation RECIPROCITY in 2048 was not an example of an Omega Order, even though it was a military strike by seven of the eight members of the Corporate Court against fellow Court member Aztechnology.

Though it is true that Shadowrunning and dirt-gathering is a fact of everyday life for the megas and for us, it is also officially against court law and thus if Fuchi can make the accusation stick, it could very well destroy Renraku. No mega has ever had the stones to pull this trick before though, so in my analysis, Fuchi must be pretty desperate to stem Renraku's thus-far unchecked growth.

OK so what did QZE do? For that matter what did Aztechnology do? I want to know if the current complaint about Renraku is on the same level. It would help me define my shopping list for the next few months.

I understand running against each other is against corporate law but they all do it. What's to keep Renraku from bringing forth their evidence that Fuchi has been targeting them and turning it all into one big legal slug fest? Again, it affects my shopping list for the next few months.

if renraku is really the unstoppable juggernaut that people are worried about then sanctions against them on any level may help level the playing field. I think the order of action taken against them will be more based on how dangerous the other corps view renraku to be rather than the level of infraction.