Overview
- The association Justice pour nos primes, representing current and former employees and advised by lawyer Renaud Portejoie, lodged the complaint with France’s financial prosecutor on November 25.
- Workers allege Lactalis underreported profits for years, reducing legally mandated participation bonuses for potentially about 16,000 France-based employees and costing hundreds of millions of euros.
- The filing accuses unknown parties of fraud and seeks an investigation, greater financial transparency across the group, and compensation for unpaid amounts.
- Lactalis contests the association’s standing, calling its claimed group action misleading, and says disciplinary and criminal steps against such practices are underway.
- The case unfolds alongside a Parquet national financier probe opened in 2018 into suspected aggravated tax fraud, bolstered by union and tax-authority reports and early‑2024 searches at company sites and the CEO’s Paris residence.