The Citroën-Simca affair: the Commercial Court judgment (20 February 1956)

In this document

The judgment of 20 February 1956

This note, on the letterhead of the Société Anonyme André Citroën and intended for "M. Magès" (handwritten note in the margin), reports on the judgment delivered on 20 February 1956 by the Tribunal de Commerce de la Seine in the dispute between Citroën and Simca.

The Court rules that Simca is guilty of disparagement by comparing its cars to front-wheel drive Citroëns, a passage underlined in red on the document recalling that "any comparison by a competitor of its products with those of another is prohibited" p. 1.

The challenge to the Conservatoire's report

The Court compares the report of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers to a "work prepared by a certain Massonet", deemed "unquestionably preconceived". It notes that this report does not mention any road-holding index, whereas Simca derived indices from it combining braking, acceleration, "S"-bend cornering and noise — the Court concludes that "the results contained in the Conservatoire's report were falsified" p. 1.

The conviction

The Court rejects the claim for ten million in damages filed by Simca against Citroën and the Manufacture des Pneumatiques Michelin, and jointly orders Simca, the company MA-RO-MA (producer of the film) and Robert de Nesle (distributor) to pay one franc in damages for "gross negligence". It orders the cessation and destruction of the leaflet, the cessation of the screening of the film La tenue de route under a penalty of one hundred thousand francs per infringement, as well as the publication of the judgment in thirty newspapers and its posting in 500 Citroën points of sale, at Simca's expense p. 2.

Michelin cleared

The second part of the note examines Michelin's attitude: the Court notes that its campaign in favour of "X" tyres on the Arondes, subsequent to Simca's initiative of September 1954, was also addressed to owners of Peugeot, Renault and Citroën cars, with similar terms, and that no other manufacturer protested — Michelin is therefore not guilty of disparagement p. 2.

Finally, the note indicates that the investigation into the complaint for forgery and use of forged documents, filed by the Conservatoire against persons unknown for possession of a falsified report, has been entrusted to the investigating judge M. Gojon p. 2, with a handwritten reference to L'Argus of 23 February 1956.

Context

The "Citroën-Simca affair" of 1955-1956 is part of the intense commercial rivalry between French manufacturers at the time of the launch of the DS, presented on 6 October 1955, and the Simca Aronde. The dispute concerns a Simca advertising campaign comparing the road-holding of its cars to that of front-wheel drive Citroëns, based on tests allegedly carried out by the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. This type of litigation, rare at the time before commercial courts, illustrates the sensitivity of manufacturers to the issue of road-holding, a central sales argument in the 1950s — an argument on which Paul Magès was then working directly, having himself conducted the test of the 15-Six H in April 1954 and being, at that date, a long-standing employee of the Citroën design office (joined in 1925, remained in post until 1974, cf. autobiographical notes).

Archivist's perspective

This document is of strong documentary interest: written the day after the judgment and intended directly for Paul Magès, it shows that the engineer was kept informed, almost in real time, of the legal issues affecting the technical reputation of Citroën cars — a subject directly linked to his own work on road-holding and suspension.

The red annotations (underlining, date stamp) suggest a careful reading, probably by Magès himself or for his information, of the key passage on the prohibition of comparative advertising.

It seems that this note is part of a larger file devoted to the affair, of which it is only the first dated document; other documents in the same box could shed light on the continuation of the investigation mentioned at the end of the text.