Blog:
madic50.blogspot.com
Google
translation: the reference text is the French text.
Paris, Tuesday,
August 21, 2018
REFLECTION
ON THE DISADVANTAGES OF THE SUBORDINATION OF COMPANIES TO THE LOGIC
OF THE PAYMENT OF DEBT AND ON THE BENEFITS OF NON-SPOLIATORY
COMPENSATION
1)- The
fracture
On August 10,
2018, a US court sentenced Monsanto to a $ 289 million fine including
250 million punitive damages. The complainant claimed $ 400 million.
Even if the US
court rings the charge against Monsento in the name of public health
and personal rights; the complexity of the case comes from what it
associates:
a- Capitalist
upheavals, such as the merger competition of Dow-Dupont on June 16,
2017 and Bayer-Monsento on June 7, 2018,
b-
Environmental issues,
c- Public
health issues,
d- The overt
nationalism of the American state for several years.
Whether it's
the Executive-Live affair, Volkswagen, or Monsanto; the US state
still has "5000" complainants on hand.
This time, the
combination of capitalistic clashes, the environment, public health,
leads to a kind of globalization of the case and the fate of purely
professional disputes.
According to Le
Monde 14.08,18: "In fact, if the stock market sanctions are
added to the concert of environmental criticism, the vise will
tighten around the German group. "
2)- Cooperation
The suffering
American masses and the European protest masses give a political
dimension to this affair under the influence of the ecologists.
This is why
Bayer AG's commitments to consider the NGOs concerned as partners in
a strategic
evolution and
not as mere adversaries do not take.
July 2018, Le Monde: The group seeks to build contacts with its opponents from civil society. "They want dialogue. This is an unprecedented step on their part, "confirmed at the beginning of July in Le Monde a head of the French branch of a large environmental NGO.
But everything
goes as if these NGOs recognize the good faith of Bayer AG and
refrain from following up on its proposals.
Bayer AG is no
longer just a legal party, like Volkswagen. She is a political camp.
A French minister announced a "war".
However, it is
impossible to imagine the future of agriculture without chemical and
agricultural engineering.
The
naturalistic thinking of ecologists can lead to a critical look at
what is being done and to local innovations. It can qualify them to
be partners in the dialogue with states and specialized companies. It
can not empower them to replace it.
Bayer AG is
therefore right to say that it is part of the solution.
Franck Garnier,
CEO of Bayer France
a- "The
word 'war' is a strong word, and I consider it inappropriate, I would
speak much more of the work that we have to do in cooperation, and I
would also say that we are part of the solution",
b- "We are
working in partnership with the agricultural sectors to develop new
products and meet their expectations, so we are already in the
collaboration, and our commitment over the last few years has been to
go further and further towards development of alternative solutions,
including natural substances, which will be able to replace
conventional phytosanitary products, and which will also be used in
organic farming.These alternative solutions, we are working
intensively ".
3)- The
condition
It can not
really be so if Bayer AG is able to come out of these head-to-head
meetings between "the victims and their executioner", the
"ecologists and chemists".
This duality
imposes:
a- The payment
of "damages", ruinous for the company and especially
disqualifying from peers,
b- The
defeat of the victims, ruinous for the image of a German company
whose good souls have of course recalled the historical antecedents.
a- Bayer, who
has continued Monsanto's assiduities to the point of raising three
times its offer, focuses on the need to produce more on limited
surfaces, therefore on an ever more intensive agriculture.
b- But this
long-term bet will be imposed in the minds of operators only "when
all disputes are settled".
4)- The dispute
I have nothing
to say about the complexity of the situation (mergers, environment,
public health).
On the other
hand, I propose a reflection on a crucial sequence today of this case
which is that of the payment of the damages-in other words, for the
fellows, of the regulation of "all the litigations".
Bayer AG
fell by 10% on the stock market only in the context of the
subordination of the company to the vagaries of court decisions
concerning damages.
According to
Michael Leacock, it is "very likely" that investors keep a
"very dark" vision of the marriage Bayer-Monsento and
inflict on the German group "a substantial discount to its
peers."
This company is
a prisoner of the peculiar logic of payment.
1- the numbers:
a- "If
every lost trial costs a quarter of a billion dollars, it does not
take much to make it expensive," said Michael Leacock, an
analyst at MainFirst. According to him, the bill could reach $ 10
billion.
b- Based on
similar cases such as Merck's Vioxx anti-inflammatory drug, Berenberg
bank reaches $ 5 billion. If the August 10 judgment were upheld on
appeal, Bayer would likely seek to deal with the plaintiffs.
c- In the past,
Bayer has already dealt with American justice. In 2003, the German
group was convicted by the Texas courts for its anti-cholesterol
Baycol, which had killed many patients. The laboratory had withdrawn
the drug in 2001 he had to pay $ 4.2 billion following multiple
lawsuits.
2- Banks
forecasts
a- The German
bank DZ Bank, which has reduced its price target from 112 to 86
euros, like other analysts of competing institutions. "It is not
certain that this judgment is confirmed and that the other complaints
succeed. But we see at least the risk that Bayer will have to pay
several billion euros in damages. To our knowledge, there is no
similar case in the agricultural sector, "warns Peter Spengler,
at DZ Bank.
b- "Even
though we do not know the outcome of the judgment, the legal risks
for Bayer as a parent company have basically increased," said
Bernhard Weiniger, a note from Independent Research.
5)- The
obstacle
By remaining
subordinated to the ideology of the debt and the payment of it, the
company loses all capacity for initiative with regard to the human
actors of the case.
Like a ship
that currents constantly bring back to the rocks; she is permanently
dragged to the suffering of the plaintiffs and must answer for her
inhumanity towards the dying before being able to be heard on the
bottom of the file.
This is a case
similar to that of States confronted with the inhumanity of the death
of an innocent by their services and who do not know how to repair
the personal harm or even to understand its importance and thus
refrain from taking again the direction policy of this event.
The company is
hindered when a French government minister declares "the war"
and its critics accuse him instead of being the cause.
Damages are the
sole responsibility of the courts.
a- True, the US
courts did not invent the Damages-and-Interests nor the fine. But
they have gained control of global manipulation in the service of
their businesses and their national economy.
b) The European
enterprise thus appears in the situation of the rabbit prisoner of
the hypnotic look of the snake and who has only to wait to be struck.
This is the
only point on which my thinking is concerned.
a- It is
necessary that the courts define the victims and their fraud by a
dedicated procedure. This is already the case in the United States.
b- The company
can have these courts endorse a compensation modality that is not
predatory for the company and that results victims, their suffering,
their revenge, legal proceedings and professional debates.
7) –
Conclusion
In doing so:
1- The company
departs from the public debate:
a- The
questioning of its financial solidity induced by its subordination to
a payment of damages which is spoliating for it.
b- The
manipulation of the victims in the debates of professionals.
2- The
manipulation of compensation for purposes of ruin and domination
becomes obsolete.
This is a
question about billions of euros.
It can then
focus on the strategic aspects of the implications of its activities.
It will be heard again in its proposal to NGOs for the establishment
of a partnership.
Marc SALOMONE
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire