Rhodia initiated an arbitration procedure in 2005 seeking E570 million from Sanofi-Aventis in order to meet environmental and pension costs. The costs were inherited when it was spun off from Rhone Poulenc, which later merged with Hoechst to form Aventis, which is now part of Sanofi-Aventis.
In a statement, Sanofi-Aventis admitted that, while the court had rejected Rhodia's claims for indemnification for environmental matters, it did not have the jurisdiction to rule on the matter of the pensions.