EDF/ERDF v. Nexans and Prysmian

The French competition authority sanctioned power cable manufacturers in 2007 for bid rigging practices infringing Article 420.1 of the French code de commerce/EU Article 101, in the context of two successive tenders organized by EDF. EDF claimed damages before a French tribunal de commerce. Compass Lexecon was retained on behalf of Nexans, one of the manufacturers. EDF’s claim was initially rejected by the tribunal de commerce and EDF appealed. In July 2015, the Paris court of appeal again rejected EDF’s claim, on the basis that its damage was not demonstrated to the appropriate standard. The Court of appeal adopted and cited evidence developed by Compass Lexecon and submitted to the Court during the appeals process that identified numerous shortcomings of EDF’s alleged damage analysis. The Compass Lexecon team included David Sevy and Frédéric Palomino. We supported Nexans’ external legal team of Vatier & Associés (Arnaud Moquin and Anne Laure Leynon) and the internal legal team (Nexans General Counsel Patrick Noonan and Florence Carterot).