CL-2022-000367 - [2025] EWHC 2877 (Comm)

The Representations could only have been true if the Defendants, in particular Mr Bonnier, had been in significant discussions with Apple and LVMH – including meetings and advanced contractual negotiations. If this had been the case, it is inevitable that there would have been documents evidencing this. Such documents would have included both exchanges with Apple and LVMH, and internal exchanges within Aaqua concerning the discussions with Apple and LVMH. However, no such documents have been disclosed and Mr Bonner was unable to identify any such documents.

As regards the witness evidence:

Furthermore, CVS pointed to the Defendants’ Response to a Request for Further Information, served on 8 February 2024, in which the only interactions with Apple were said to have been a conversation with Mr Tim Cook and Mr Steve Jobs in 1999 (i.e., some 20 years before Aaqua even existed); and the only interactions with LVMH were said to have been various discussions with Mr Nicolas Bazire, in particular an informal meeting in 2014 (i.e., some 6 years before Aaqua existed).

In the course of his oral submissions during the trial, Mr Bonnier confirmed that he had never discussed Aaqua with any representatives from Apple, apart from an off-the-record meeting with Mr Luca Maestri in Los Angeles on 7 August 2021, which he had overlooked at the time of preparing the Response to the Request for Further Information. He also accepted that Apple had had no hand at all in the drafting of the Draft Framework Agreement, and that Apple had not been involved in any negotiations in relation to it.

I accept CVS’s case that these facts are inconsistent with the Representations. All three Representations were false.