Businessman Vincent Bolloré and several of his companies, including Vivendi and its subsidiary Canal+, have withdrawn the defamation actions brought against the authors of Vincent tout-puissant, a book-investigation published in 2018 devoted in particular to his African activities, learned AFP, Thursday, January 19, from concordant sources.
In a letter dated January 10 addressed to the Paris Criminal Court, Vincent Bolloré, Canal+, Vivendi, Bolloré SE and Bolloré Africa Logistics expressed their wish to "withdraw their action" by invoking the "recent sale of several companies." Contacted by AFP, the businessman's lawyer, Olivier Baratelli, confirmed that "the Bolloré group has decided to withdraw due to the sale of its port concession activities in Africa." The court took note of this during a relay hearing on January 16.
Co-author of the book, the independent journalist Nicolas Vescovacci stated to the AFP the end of a "gag procedure" and an "instrumentalization of justice." His lawyer, Christophe Bigot, welcomed the end of "legal pressure" which weighed on this book.
Even before the release of this book in 2018, Vincent Bolloré had tried to prevent its publication by initiating civil proceedings which turned against him and earned him a conviction in March 2019 for "abusive procedure" (Satellifacts, March 7, 2019). After the publication, Vincent Bolloré and several companies in his group filed defamation complaints targeting, according to Nicolas Vescovacci, a "hundred" passages from the book. The hearing was scheduled over 2 days at the end of March. According to Christophe Bigot, this withdrawal is however not sufficiently “late” to justify an action in “abusive procedure” against the plaintiffs, which could have enabled the authors to obtain damages.
"All this costs money, takes us time and mobilizes the judiciary for nothing," lamented Nicolas Vescovacci, who will therefore have to cover the costs of lawyers engaged in this procedure.