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| Barcelona Appellate Court Conclusively Finds For FCC In Its Lawsuit With Acciona The Provincial Appellate Court of Barcelona has overruled the appeal Acciona filed against the sentence handed down by Barcelona Court of First Instance Number Two last January finding for FCC in the legal action between the two companies concerning Acciona's endeavour to put three representatives on FCC's Board of Directors. At the General Meeting of Shareholders in FCC held in Barcelona on 23 June 2004, the three directors chosen by Acciona (which holds 15.05% of the shares in FCC) were dismissed because all the shareholders except Acciona felt that the appointments were incompatible, whereas the appointees represented one of FCC's direct competitors. Acciona filed suit at Court of First Instance Number 2 in Barcelona to challenge the shareholders' decision, and the court found for FCC in January last. Acciona then filed an appeal with the Provincial Appellate Court of Barcelona, which has been dismissed. The fact that a company has representatives from a competing firm on its board of directors may cloud the transparency that the free-market system is supposed to respect, "contributing to the suspicion that competition is a false show from the moment in which, from the outside, one can see the offer and behaviour of one company, FCC, in whose management a naturally competing firm plays a role or participates, with the consequential prevention and reservation vis-à-vis the eventuality of 'fixed' practices". At a later point, the sentence states that the appointment of directors cannot be regarded as a question independent of the subjective origin of their appointment. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Construction News :: home page |