N.J DIFFUSION v GISELA MAYER (CFI, 19 June 2025)

Dhenne Avocats · 10 October 2026

Our analysis

Summary

By a procedural order of 19 June 2025 (UPC_CFI_363/2024, EP 2 404 516), the Paris Local Division (Judges Lignières, presiding and judge-rapporteur, Gillet and Schilling), on referral from the judge-rapporteur, held inadmissible GISELA MAYER’s application for security for costs of EUR 50,000 against N.J DIFFUSION, lodged after the latter had entered French judicial reorganisation proceedings (redressement judiciaire). It admitted the voluntary intervention of the insolvency officeholders, recorded that the action on the merits continues and refused to postpone the oral hearing of 20 June 2025. The order addresses the interplay between security under Rule 158 and French insolvency law.

Question

Can the defendant to an infringement action obtain security for costs against a claimant placed in judicial reorganisation during the proceedings?

Decision

The Division found that the action could continue, its conditions being met: the insolvency officeholders had been joined and GISELA MAYER had lodged its claims, the verification of which is for the supervising judge (juge-commissaire). The alleged fraud by the debtor was not established: the accountant’s certificate produced in support of the first, rejected, security application was dated 4 April 2025, before the date of cessation of payments (14 May 2025), and only the insolvency court may rule on fraudulent acts. Security does not condition the continuation of the action, and granting it to one creditor would breach the principle of equal treatment of creditors: the application was inadmissible. Leave to appeal was refused.

Key points for practice

• Once the claimant is in judicial reorganisation, the defendant must protect its position by lodging its claim in the insolvency proceedings. Security for costs is no longer available to it.

Provisions applied

Agreement on a Unified Patent Court

Art. 73

Rules of Procedure

Rules 158, 220.2, 311, 313, 331.2 and 355.1

Other provisions

French Commercial Code, Arts L. 622-21, L. 622-22, L. 625-3 and R. 622-20

Prepared by Dhenne Avocats from the official decision, consulted on 10 October 2026. The database is updated every week, on Friday. Only the official text is authoritative.