First French decision on disparagement issue relating to pending UPC cases

In April, a French court extended the concept of disparagement to an ongoing UPC case for the first time. The ruling affects Dutch company Qiagen, which had published a press release on its French-language website regarding a UPC case. This is an issue that many companies outside France are likely to be unfamiliar with.

On 3 March 2025, Qiagen published a press release announcing it had filed an infringement action against France-based company bioMérieux at the Düsseldorf local division of the UPC (case ID: ACT_9962/2025).

In response, bioMérieux filed interim proceedings for disparagement before the Tribunal des activités économiques de Lyon. The court ruled in favour of the plaintiff, finding that the communication was disparaging and constituted “manifestly unlawful disturbance” to bioMérieux.

Communication strictly limited

The French rules on disparagement fall under competition law and aim to protect companies from statements by competitors that could cast them in a negative light. Among other restrictions, it is prohibited to discuss pending or unfiled patent infringement lawsuits outside one’s own company.

A company may only communicate a patent infringement lawsuit externally after the publication of a first judgment, for example in a press release or in an email to a customer.

As a result, the court ordered Qiagen to refrain from further comment on the ongoing UPC case. Furthermore, it ordered the company to publish the decision of the Tribunal des activités économiques de Lyon on its French-language website Qiagen.com for three months. BioMérieux must also publish this decision on its website for the same period.

It remains unclear to which UPC cases the strict French rules on communication apply, but this ruling raises the issue for the first time. Companies must now balance these rules with their desire to provide information to stakeholders.