High-Profile Litigation Victory for Consortium de Réalisation in Paris

​The Paris Court of Appeal last week rejected claims by French businessman Bernard Tapie and his group of companies against our client Consortium de Réalisation (CDR), the French government entity tasked with liquidating the assets of Crédit Lyonnais. This resounding victory for CDR is a decisive, if not final step, in this complex litigation that dates back more than 20 years.

Mr. Tapie had sought more than €1 billion in damages, alleging in particular that Crédit Lyonnais defrauded him by undervaluing Adidas when he sold it in the early 1990s. In addition to rejecting Tapie’s claims, the court ordered him to repay CDR more than €400 million that was awarded to him in an arbitration proceeding (a total of 440 million euros with interest and costs). The same court vacated that award back in February 2015, agreeing with our team’s arguments that the underlying arbitration proceeding was tainted with fraud and fundamentally unfair to our client CDR.

Orrick Rambaud Martel's Jean-Pierre Martel and Valentin Autret advised CDR on the matter.