The interim relief judges of the administrative courts of Nantes and Rennes have disavowed around ten French hospitals – including those of Noyal-Pontivy (Morbihan), Lannion, Lamballe and Guingamp (Côtes-d’Armor) – which now intend to take legal action against the manufacturers and distributors of canned vegetables who colluded on prices, to their detriment, for thirteen years.
Between August 1 and 12, 2024, thirteen French hospitals, represented by the same two Parisian lawyers – Sarah Subrémon and Hugo-Bernard Pouillaude – therefore filed urgent appeals before the interim relief judges of the administrative courts of Rennes, Nantes, Dijon and Lille after being informed of these convictions by the General Directorate for Healthcare Provision (DGOS) of the Ministry of Health.
A “serious risk of loss of evidence”
All demanded that manufacturers, distributors and the tax authorities provide them with the documents determining the “scope of the products concerned” by this “anti-competitive agreement”: this data is “essential” for them to establish “the existence of causality between the illegal agreement (…) and the damage [financier] ».
Manufacturers of canned vegetables and distributors are also “subject to a legal retention period of ten years”, they argued, which raises “a serious risk of loss of evidence” while “a large part of the requested documents has already been destroyed”.
The fact remains that the legal period of ten years for keeping documents has already “expired”, the interim relief judges point out in their respective orders: the companies cannot therefore be considered to be in their “possession”. Even if they still held them, they could not be “required to communicate them”. Similarly, the administration is subject to an “administrative usefulness period” of ten years: its services can therefore no longer be ordered to produce them. Finally, and “in any event”, it has “not been demonstrated” that these documents would be “essential to the introduction of an action for compensation”.
