EADS, Europe's aerospace and defence giant, won a significant victory last night when it was cleared — along with 17 of its current and former executives — of insider dealing charges by France's stock market watchdog.

In a decision which came as a surprise to most French observers, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) brushed aside the recommendations of its examiner, who had demanded fines of €12.3 million for insider trading.

The ruling was a victory for Noël Forgeard, EADS’ former joint chief executive, who was forced to quit the group amid fierce criticism when the row broke.

It also brought relief to EADS after a three year inquiry into a scandal which rocked the French and German industrial and political establishments.

The executives were questioned by the AMF last month over allegations that they had exploited inside information when they sold stock options in 2006.

They were accused of making the sales in the knowledge that EADS' share price would slump when production delays at Airbus, its plane-making division, became known.

EADS and its main private shareholders, Lagardère, the French media group, and Daimler, the German carmaker, who also faced charges, were all formally cleared by the regulator.

Last night, EADS said that it welcomed the AMF finding that it had ''respected in all ways its duty to inform the markets.''

Antoine Courteault, the AMF examiner, had called for 10 of the executives — including Thomas Enders, chairman of Airbus — to be cleared but called for fines for the remaining seven in a report this summer.

He said that John Leahy, Airbus' sales director, who made a profit of €2.2 million (£1.9 million) from the sale of his stock options, should pay a fine of €3.6 million: Andreas Sperl, the managing director of the EADS plant in Dresden, should pay €710,000 and Alain Flourens, the director of the A380 programme, should be fined €360,000.

The examiner also called for Mr Forgeard, who made €3.7 million from his stock options, to be fined €5.4 million, and for EADS to be fined €700,000 for failing to inform investors of delays to A380 production plans in 2006.

With the AMF usually following the examiner's recommendations, commentators expected the main protagonists to be reprimanded.

L'affaire EADS, as it is known, is not yet over, with a criminal inquiry also underway in France into the insider trading claims.

But the AMF ruling will provide arguments for the defendants' lawyers as they seek to get the charges dropped.

Times Recommends

• Tories’ green bank to revolutionise power policy
• UK car industry receives £2.6bn injection
• Pru chief turns down seat on board of bank