A UK judge rejected an attempt by Airbus on Friday. The attempt was to invoke a De Gaulle-era law restricting the way it responds to foreign courts, as a high-profile dispute with Qatar Airways became mired in a growing debate over cross-border legal powers.
Qatar Airways is suing France-based Airbus for $1.4 billion over safety concerns including damage to the painted surface and anti-lightning system on A350 jets, saying passenger security could be at risk from a design defect. Airbus acknowledges quality flaws but insists the jets are safe.
Now, the two sides must provide each other with thousands of pages of documents as their dispute heads towards a rare London aerospace trial in mid-2023, barring an elusive settlement. But at the moment Airbus seem to be less keen on providing set documents.
Airbus claims they are not handing over documents to Qatar Airways due to a 54 year old law that stops French companies from handing over sensitive economic details to foreign courts, without a special mechanism in place. They applied to a UK judge for permission to appoint a special commissioner responsible for transmitting the documents to Qatar Airways, something it had already done to assist UK authorities during a corruption case that led to a record 3.6 billion euro fine against Airbus from Britain, France and the United States in 2020.
Airbus were attempting to claim that failing to set up such a conduit would expose the company to criminal charges in France.
The case Judge, David Waksman, rejected Airbus’ request, awarding costs to Qatar Airways.
The 1968 law – commonly known as the “French blocking statute” – was designed to protect French companies from oppressive foreign court demands especially from the United States, with which Paris was locked in an economic Cold War, a situation that seems far different from the one it faces today, as Airbus is one of he industry giants of the world.
Judge David Waksman attested to that saying: “That in my judgment is a million miles away from what this case is all about. This is hardly the example of an unwilling, vulnerable French company that has now found itself having to cope with a highly intrusive and oppressive form of discovery”.
Friday’s decision will surely be a big win for Qatar Airways, safety standards of the entire airline industry and anyone else fighting the big cooperate companies trying to hide information from their customers.
