Decision of the Commercial Court of Marseille regarding a lawsuit

Luxembourg, March 19, 2004 - Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card enabled solutions, today reported on a decision of the Commercial Court of Marseille.

In the lawsuit commenced in 1997 against Gemplus International S.A.'s French subsidiary Gemplus S.A., relating to an alleged breach of an agreement regarding the sale of smart card solutions for casino gambling, the Commercial Court of Marseille has ordered Gemplus S.A. to pay a total sum of approximately € 22 million based upon an expert's report. 

This case is related to a market segment which, from Gemplus' point of view, has very little or no development potential, as confirmed by the lack of evolution in this segment to date. The conclusions of the expert's report, on which the Court based its decision, are that the development potential of this segment is very significant. 

Therefore, Gemplus S.A. contested the expert's report as well as the related estimated damages and the merits of the case on various grounds, and will file an appeal. 

The group made a provision of 1.8 million euros in its accounts for this case in the first quarter of 2003, and is evaluating the potential impact of the court's decision on this provision.

About Gemplus 

Gemplus International S.A.(Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is the world's leading player in the smart card industry in both revenue and total shipments (source 2002: Gartner Dataquest, Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor.) It has the largest R&D team, unrivalled experience, and an outstanding track record of technological innovation.

Gemplus offers an exceptional range of portable, personalized solutions that bring security and convenience to people's lives. These include Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Identity, WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, access control, and a wealth of other applications.

Gemplus' revenue in 2003 was 749 million Euros.

www.gemplus.com

For more information, contact:

Marielle Bricman
Gemplus Press Relations
Tel: +33 (0) 4 42 36 55 96
Mob : +33 (0) 6 74 68 72 82
Email: marielle.bricman@gemplus.com 

Celine Berthier
Gemplus Investor Relations
Tel: +41 22 544 5065
Email: celine.berthier@gemplus.com 

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