This decision by the Commercial Court of Paris comes at a bad time for Euronews.
It is a long-awaited verdict by both parties.
But the outcome of the dispute between the Malagasy company Sipromad and the Euronews channel was decided on November 23, 2021 by the Commercial Court of Paris in favor of the former.
The judges ordered the return to the Malagasy company, owned by the Franco-Malagasy businessman Ylias Akbaraly, the whopping amount one million euros that had been paid in 2019 by Sipromad to Euronews, a channel owned by the Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris.
This amount had, since last March, been blocked in a bank account, at the court’s request.
It had been paid by Sipromad as part of a buyout operation, estimated at €7.5 million, of Africanews, the African branch of Euronews created and based in the Congolese economic capital Pointe-Noire, since 2016, following an agreement signed with the Congolese government.
In a previous decision, the Commercial Court of Paris had declared the transaction null and void, declaring that Euronews had committed fraud “by intentionally failing to inform Sipromad” of the “exact provisions of its agreements with the state of Congo,” which did not allow it to make such a transaction without informing the Congolese government.
In its November 23 ruling, the Paris Commercial Court refers to other concealments “discovered after the signing of the transfer contract.”
Among these, the court points out that Euronews “has never paid to Congo, since 2016, the 50 percent of advertising revenue that it had committed to pay.”
The Parisian judges also point out that the contribution of €37.5 million from the state to finance Africanews did not appear in the accounts of the company.
By way of fees caused by the cancelled contracts, the court also awards the sum of €90,000 to Sipromad.
It condemns Euronews to pay €100,000 to the Malagasy firm as compensation for its expenses to have its rights recognized.
However, the court did not give Sipromad compensation as it requested by way of “damages and publication of the judgment.”
The case arose when Sipromad accused Euronews of having concealed the financial links of Africanews with the Congolese state.
Euronews in turn accused the Malagasy company of having cancelled the takeover of Africanews because it could not raise the funds to bankroll the operation.
The international news channel based in Lyon, France, had claimed damages.
Euronews for which the European Commission is one of the main financial backers, is faced with dwindling subsidies from the Brussels-based institution.
LOS/fss/as/APA