Statement

Jean-Yves Naouri was removed from Publicis Groupe’s Board of Directors on 15 September 2014 and terminated from his employment with Publicis Groupe on 30 September 2014.

Following this, he filed two lawsuits against Publicis.

One before the Commercial Court, in which he requested, in addition to maintaining his rights to stock options and free shares granted during his mandate, 10.6 million euros (1.6 million euros in severance pay for dismissal without just cause and 9 million euros in damages for harm stemming, in his opinion, from the abusive and vexatious nature of his removal).

The other before the Labor Court, in which he initially requested an additional bonus of 600.000 euros for 2013, 900.000 euros for 2014 and 8 million euros in damages.

The Commercial Court ruled on 18 December 2015 and dismissed all Jean-Yves Naouri's claims. Jean-Yves Naouri filed an appeal, requesting:

• primarily, in application of an alleged settlement agreement between himself and Publicis, the preservation of his rights to free share subscription options and the sum of 4.250.000 euros;
• in the alternative, the same amount as he originally requested before the Commercial Court and the preservation of his rights to free share subscription options. 

The Court of Appeal, in its judgment dated 7 December 2017, dismissed all Jean-Yves Naouri's claims, awarding him no damages, only granting Article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure and the severance pay of 1.6 million euros voted by the shareholders (as well as his request to preserve his rights to free share subscription options).

Before the Labor Court, Jean-Yves Naouri changed his initial claims and requested 2.3 million euros in damages and an additional bonus for 2013 and 2014.

The Labor Court deemed that Jean-Yves Naouri’s termination was based on a real and serious cause and dismissed his other claims with the exception of the granting of an additional bonus of 400.000 euros for 2013, and 700.000 euros for 2014, with these bonuses impacting the calculation of severance pay and paid leaves.

While Jean-Yves Naouri had initially requested nearly 20 million euros, he obtained, all causes combined, about 3 million.