Ardagh awarded $84m in settlement of case with Saint-Gobain

Irish financier Paul Coulson’s Ardagh Group was awarded $84 million (€83.4 million) by an arbitration court on Friday to settle a case with French industrial group Saint-Gobain.

The award from the International Court of Arbitration, including interest and costs, stems from a patent dispute involving a business the glass and metal containers group acquired from Saint-Gobain eight years ago.

A Delaware jury ordered in April 2017 that Ardagh pay $50.3 million to a company, Green Mountain, which claimed the group’s US glass unit had infringed a patent over technology to turn mixed-colour glass into recycled glass of a single colour.

The affected Ardagh business had been acquired in 2014 as part of the group’s $1.5 billion purchase of Verallia North America (VNA) from Saint-Gobain.

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The US court of appeals of the federal circuit affirmed Green Mountain’s case in July 2019. Ardagh transferred the amount due — which had risen to $64.5 million when interest costs were included — that October to Green Mountain.

Ardagh was indemnified by Saint-Gobain and initiated arbitration proceedings to recover losses arising from the US legal proceedings. Friday’s award, which is final, represents full recovery for Ardagh.