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Partner Emmanuèle Lutfalla comments on the insurance consequences in relation to a French court’s recent decision regarding backing a class action against French multinational healthcare company Sanofi in the so-called Depakine case.

Emmanuèle’s comments were published in La Tribune de L’Assurance, 1 February 2022, here.

Having been accepted by the court of the first instance (Sanofi announcing that it intends to appeal), the group action against the pharmaceutical company is likely to further strain the market for liability claims against drug producers, as Emmanuèle Lutfalla, points out: “On liability, this matter is highly sensitive and could lead to inflationary trends towards insurers and reinsurers, linked to the increasing mobilisation of image protection and crisis management guarantees, as well as a corresponding increase in defence costs. The ceilings of guarantees/limit of liability questions applicable, given the co-existence of a group and individual actions all targeting the same breach, will surely also raise questions about the aggregation/consolidation of individual claims within the framework of group action.”