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

CVS said that Mr Bonnier could not honestly have believed that the Representations were true and, in fact, knew them to be false.

As well as the matters set out under the previous heading, in relation to falsity, CVS relied on Mr Bonnier’s admission in his witness statement that: “I accept that I went too far in some of my late December/early January emails and should have presented a clearer picture in February 2021.”

Furthermore, CVS contends that Mr Bonnier cannot have reasonably believed that the Conditions Precedent Representation was true because he admitted in his witness statement that in relation to his 31 December 2020 Email:

“no conditions precedent had been agreed or even discussed with those who we hoped would become tactical partners”.

I am satisfied not only that the Representations were false, but also that Mr Bonnier knew them to be false. I reach this conclusion not least because of Mr Bonnier’s admission, during the trial, that Apple had had no hand at all in the drafting of the Draft Framework Agreement, that Apple had not been involved in any negotiations in relation to it and that there would be no trace of a documentary record of any dealings with Apple even in the 6,000 unreviewed documents that Mr Bonnier says he disclosed to CVS on 29 August 2025, but which CVS says it has been unable to access.