Big newspaper, big allowance. The Court of Cassation has ruled in the dispute between Canal+ and the former host of its flagship show, Maïtena Biraben: the audiovisual group will have to pay more than 3.4 million euros gross in compensation for having dismissed her in 2016 without "real and serious cause".

A judgment of the Court of Cassation, revealed Tuesday by L'Informer and consulted by AFP, confirmed the essence of the decision of the Versailles Court of Appeal which had condemned the Canal+ group to pay the presenter nearly 3.5 million euros gross in various indemnities in June 2021.

This amount was revised slightly downwards after the cancellation of nearly 40,000 euros due as a salary reminder. The severance pay was also recalculated, with about 1,400 euros less, to 136,000 euros gross.

Dismissed for "serious misconduct"

"The fight for the most part is over. I am proud of that. It marks a life," Maïtena Biraben told AFP. The former presenter of the show "Le grand Journal" was dismissed in the summer of 2016 after a single season, then dismissed for "serious misconduct".

The latter had reacted by claiming 4 million euros from the channel before the labor court. The body, considering his dismissal without "real and serious cause", had condemned in September 2018 the Canal + group to pay him more than 3.4 million euros.

The subsidiary of the media giant Vivendi, led by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, had challenged this decision with the Versailles Court of Appeal, which had increased his sentence in June 2021.

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