In a judgement dated 26 June 2024, the French Court of Cassation clarified the concept of economic parasitism, a tort by which a company takes unfair advantage of the efforts, know-how, reputation or investments of another company without bearing the costs.
In this case, a company claimed that one of its competitors had copied the design of several of its products, and sued it for unfair competition and parasitism. However, the lower courts and the Court of Cassation ruled that the plaintiff had not provided sufficient evidence of the individualised economic value of the products at issue.
A party wishing to establish the existence of economic parasitism must therefore provide sufficient evidence of specific investments that result in identified and individualised economic value; the mere commercial success of a product or its longevity is not sufficient evidence. In addition, it must be shown that the accused party deliberately intended to follow in its competitor’s footsteps in order to benefit unduly from its efforts.
