French Constitutional Court quashes Airbus insider trading case

In what has been seen by many as a potential case of double jeopardy, Judges in the Paris Criminal Court have dropped all charges against a number of individual and corporate defendants in a case of alleged insider trading at Airbus which relates to events that took place in 2006. The trial itself began last year, but was immediately brought to a halt through the desire of the defense to seek a court ruling from a higher judiciary regarding the Criminal Court’s right to try the defendants. The defense sought to have the case dismissed because the defendants had already been found innocent of any wrong doing by the French stock market regulators, AMF, in 2009 after a thorough investigation and therefore it was not lawful to try them. Ultimately the validity of the case seemed to rest on the balance of power held between the French administration and the judiciary.
Fingers were pointed after the seven accused were found to have sold shares in what was then known as EADS – the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) formed in 2000 – just a few months before it was revealed that there were going to be delays with the A380 project. When the delays were officially announced share prices in EADS fell by over 25% and once it was discovered that the defendants had offloaded stock prior to the announcement, a complaint was brought by a private investor, which subsequently turned into one of France’s most high-profile legal cases. While today’s result was expected for the private individuals, there was more uncertainty regarding the corporate defendants as it was considered that the AMF investigation regarding their position had not been as thorough.
Currently Airbus is facing a new set of problems relating to the A380 due to a downturn in sales, and the company is now weighing up plans to re-launch the A380 with new engines in an attempt to regain lost momentum.