Moët Hennessy Worker Acquitted of Defamation in Landmark Case

A fired Moët Hennessy employee who wrote on social media alleging discrimination and mismanagement at the LVMH-owned drinks business has been acquitted of defamation in a Paris court. The trial, which started in November, pitted professed whistleblower Maria Gasparovic against the €6bn owner of brands from Hennessy cognac to Veuve Clicquot champagne. The court found on Tuesday that Moët Hennessy had failed to demonstrate it had been defamed by Gasparovic’s LinkedIn posts, in which she claimed she had been bullied and sexually harassed at Moët Hennessy before being fired without her allegations being investigated. The judges also ordered Moët Hennessy to pay her €2,000 in damages for pursuing what they described as a “frivolous” lawsuit intended to “restrict Gasparovic’s freedom of expression”. However, they denied Gasparovic’s request for additional compensation. “It is clear from these elements that the legal action initiated against Maria Gasparovic by Moët Hennessy was, to say the least, reckless, and that the latter . . . abused its right to take legal action,” the judges wrote in their decision. Gasparovic’s lawyer Claire Caillou told the FT that Moët Hennessy had sought to “silence” Gasparovic through “a gag order procedure”. “This motivation is further reinforced by the fact that the court emphasises the considerable financial resources available to Moët Hennessy to silence employees who attempt to denounce the actions of which they are victims in the course of their professional activity,” she added. Moët Hennessy declined to comment. Gasparovic is separately suing Moët Hennessy for gender discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful dismissal in an employment court where she is seeking €1.3mn in damages and compensation. Moët Hennessy denies all allegations and asserts that she was fired for gross misconduct. Former Moët Hennessy chief operating officer Mark Stead, who is Gasparovic’s partner, was also fired by the company for misconduct, a decision upheld by an employment tribunal in November. Stead will appeal against the decision. A number of other employees have left Moët Hennessy after making complaints on similar grounds to Gasparovic’s in recent years, according to court documents and reporting by the FT. Moët Hennessy has claimed all dismissals were for legitimate reasons. The business has undergone a turbulent period in which strategic mis-steps and a weaker global market for alcohol have led to poor performance, and several of its top executives have left. These include Gasparovic’s former boss Jean-Marc Lacave and Philippe Schaus, Moët Hennessy’s chief executive at the time of her employment. Former LVMH group chief financial officer Jean-Jacques Guiony and Alexandre Arnault, a former Tiffany executive and son of LVMH controlling shareholder Bernard Arnault, have now been put in charge of turning around the luxury group’s worst-performing division. LVMH will report its 2025 financial results at the end of the month, with revenues at the wine and spirits division expected to be almost 4 per cent down organically on 2024, according to consensus estimates from Visible Alpha.