2023-06-21 11:34:20
The Casino group has summoned the specialized media Letter A to appear in court for defamation, which believes that the distributor in financial difficulty “is thus trying to hinder the publication of (its) information”, AFP learned on Wednesday, confirming information from the world.
The investigative media, created in 1978 and bought by Indigo Publications in 2007, received a summons to appear before the Paris Criminal Court, dated June 15 and which AFP consulted on Wednesday, because of articles “particularly denigrating and defamatory” against the Casino group.
The latter, requested by AFP, did not comment.
Octave Bonnaud, editor-in-chief of Letter A, which investigates the mysteries of political, economic and media power, confirmed to AFP on Wednesday the existence of this procedure, considering that the group “is trying to hinder the publication of our information”. “Obviously the Letter A will continue to cover the Casino group and mass distribution”.
The Casino group, listed on the stock exchange, believes that it has suffered “considerable” “economic damage” because of the articles of Letter A, and is seeking compensation in the amount of 13.7 million euros. A sum that corresponds to the cleared market valuation on a trading day when two Letter A articles were published, according to the subpoena.
“Good luck showing that it was articles from Letter A that lowered the price” that day, replies Octave Bonnaud, noting that the articles were published at 6:20 a.m. and 11:40 a.m. “while we are talking about a drop in the stock price at the end of the day”. “In any case, we claim the possibility of releasing information that is likely to lower a stock market price”.
The retailer from Saint-Etienne, which employs 200,000 people worldwide, including a large quarter in France under many brands such as Monoprix, Franprix or Pao de Acucar in Brazil, entered the conciliation procedure at the end of May in order to renegotiate its debt.
For his part, the CEO of the group Jean-Charles Naouri was detained on June 1 as part of an investigation opened on February 5, 2020 and relating to alleged facts of “price manipulation in an organized gang, active private corruption and passive” and “insider trading committed during 2018 and 2019”. He was released without charge against him at this stage.
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