From: tgmur@tinet.ch (Thomas Gmuer) Newsgroups: rec.autos.sport.f1 Subject: Update in the Eisele case Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 22:47:30 +0200 Organization: Friends of Carlotta Lines: 155 Message-ID: <199710162247301464710@lugano-ppp01.tinet.ch> NNTP-Posting-Host: lugano-ppp01.tinet.ch X-Trace: ubnnews.unisource.ch 877034774 23786 (None) 194.29.0.66 X-Complaints-To: news@ubnnews.unisource.ch X-Newsreader: MacSOUP D-2.2.1 The following is a press-release from AE TV Corporation GmbH as been sent out to the agencies on October 16, 1997. Update in the proceedings "FIA, central TV marketing in motor sport" -------------------------------------------------------------------- After the two interim injunctions in the matter of the action filed at the Regional Court in Frankfurt by AE-TV against the FIA, or Mr. Ecclestone respectively, regarding "monopolistic central TV marketing of all motor sports series by the world motor sport association, FIA, and its vice president, Bernie Ecclestone, "were issued in June already (1st interim injunction prohibiting to assert Europe-wide that the FIA is the sole holder of TV rights of the FIA series with respect to the European Truck Championship: 2nd interim injunction prohibiting to cancel or not to carry out, as a reprisal to the 1st interim injunction, the European Truck Championship), another judgement was delivered on July 27, 1997. The Regional Court in Frankfurt delivered a default judgement without further hearing the opposing party. The judgement is valid in its effect and enforceable within the European Community. The FIA is forbidden to implement any further monopolistic central marketing of TV rights in motor sports referring to FIA's internal decision of 20.10.1995 and 11.06.1996 or to communicate this. Moreover, the FIA is ordered to disclose all their contacts with third parties (broadcasters, organizers, industry) to the plaintiff, AE-TV. The defendant, FIA, has to reimburse the plaintiff for all material losses incurred or those still being incurred by their actions and has to bear the costs of legal proceedings. Infringement will be punished by a fine of up to DM 500.000 or, alternatively, by imprisonment for 6 months to be imposed upon FIA's president, Max Mosley. The case number of the judgement is: 2-06 O 134/97 Referring to the 2nd interim injunction the Regional Court in Frankfurt held another hearing on September 10, 1997, and announced in October 1, 1997, that the 2nd interim injunction has been annulled. With the event in Spain on October 5, 1997, the championship has been carried out, thus safeguarding its performance in 1997, so that now, there is no need any more to protect it. AE-TV is now considering whether an appeal should be lodged against this judgement. The complaint against ISC, Mr. Ecclestone's TV marketing corporation, and against himself in his function as FIA's vice president and general manager of ISC, has been extended at the Regional Court in Cologne by 3 other FIA European Championships (Rally, Dragster and Rally-Cross). The Court has requested the parties to re-formulate their pleadings within 4 weeks and adjourned to the end of December 1997. In the main proceedings in Frankfurt, the complaint was also extended by the 3 other series for the hearing on October 15, 1997, thus now comprising 70 Europe-wide FIA events. On the FIA lawyers' request, the Court sustained the motion to grant them another period for preparing a statement. The date has been scheduled for the end of January. Furthermore, it can be assumed that the Regional Court wants to wait for the Higher Regional Court's decision, referring to the 1st interim injunction and to be made in November, because the matters in dispute are basically identical. Due to these judgements against the year long restrictions in the field of TV marketing in motor sport, the FIA, via their vice president, entered into direct negotiations with the plaintiff. As far as today's state of the matter is concerned it must be stated that FIA's basic attitude has not changed. Rather, it must be stated that the only purpose of their entering into talks is to gain time for FIA/ISC in this matter. The respective talks allow us to conclude that the FIA and Mr. Ecclestone persist on their position, i.e. on generally maintaining the monopolistic central marketing of TV rights in all series. The negotiations thus held - on the part of the FIA - as "phoney talks" have to be regarded as failed and could not yield any agreement. In the meantime, the Commission in Brussels has started to take a close look also at the other series being centrally marketed by the FIA. For example, not only have all manufacturers in the truck scene been asked to inform the DG IV on this topic, with reference to Article 11, but also those for the Rally World Championship and the former DTM/ITC. In return, Mr. Mosley and Mr. Ecclestone are trying to persuade the manufacturers and teams of the Formula 1, GT World Championship and Rally World Championship series, among others, to give positive statements on the previous monopolistic TV marketing policy. Due to the unmistakable legal signals from Frankfurt on the basis of the judgements against the FIA and Mr. Ecclestone, this effort to "clear their names" by means of goodwill letters should be doorned to failure from the very start. Dated September 12, 1997, FIA published a telefax to the 10 manufacturers of commercial vehicles i.e. to Caterpillar, DAF, E.R.F., LIZA, MAN, Mercedes-Benz, Praga, Renault, Scania and Volvo, which shows e.g. that "... 2 injunctions by a Frankfurt court ... have led to some uncertainty over the status of the Truck Racing series." "Therefore, although the traditional celebration dinner will be held at the last race of the series (Jarama, 5 October), the FIA is obliged to postpone the awarding of prizes." What, we may ask ourselves, has the outcome of a championship and the related awarding of prizes to do with the disputes over TV rights ... unless you wanted to influence the status of the completed championship 1997 and thus also influence the results. However, we assume that the FIA, having announced a "fair and orderly performance" of a championship for 1997, will also implement such a performance. Apparently, however, the FIA has failed to notice that the manufacturers addressed have, within the framework of their VDA meeting, already decided and stipulated in writing to carry out, if necessary, the series even without the FIA. And in fact, not only was there no awards ceremony for the finals in Jarama, but the Spanish organizer had even received a fax by the National Spanish Automobile Association dd. 25.09.1997 (in English, mark you), prohibiting the organizer to hold an INTRO meeting - i.e. an open meeting by the Truck representatives democratically elected by the association's active members. Under Add. 3 of this fax, the following can be read: "We obviously respect the rights of any kind of Association, but we think that this meeting in Jarama Circuit, may disturb the suitable run of the Truck race planned on this weekend". signed: Carlos Gracia / President The organizer followed such a hurried obedience to the FIA and prohibited the meeting on the Jarama circuit. Moreover, the organizer saw himself "not in a position to participate" in a Truck organizer meeting although - or even because - he had applied to the FIA for an event in 1998 for the FIA Truck European Cup. Remarkably, in the FIA meeting of the World Motor Sport Council on October 8, 1997, the Spanish representative was nominated new president of the Truck Commission by the FIA - as successor of the "former deserter", Joachim Mann of the German Automobile Club, ADAC. For the first time in more than 17 years, the FIA publicly presented the pattern of financial participation and the distribution scheme for the costs of TV rights for the Formula 1 teams in a press release dd. July 8, 1997. This is a definite sign of the fact that Mosley/Ecclestone are taking their stock exchange flotation very seriously and now have to try to elucidate their economic undertakings because of the stock exchange regulations. The strategy of a factual and objective legal fight against the FIA and thus against the Ecclestone/Mosley duo is achieving its first successes since it can be derived from the answers to the complaints and the statements by the FIA/ISC that they are retreating from the courts and are trying to find a resort on the basis of compromises. AE TV Corporation GmbH Wolfgang Eisele