Adman Harold Mitchell has been fined $90,000 after a court ruled he “stepped over the line” in his dealings with Seven Network’s commercial director Bruce McWilliam during negotiations for broadcast rights to the Australian Tennis.
The Federal Court says Mitchell breached his duties as a director of Tennis Australia (TA) but that this didn’t cause, and none was intended, any real damage.
The contraventions were “far narrower in scope” than that alleged by corporate regulator ASIC which put the case that Mitchell gave Seven the inside running to get the broadcast contract.
“I found that Mr Mitchell was motivated at all times by a belief that he was acting in the interests of TA,” said Mr Justice Beach.
Justice Beach threw out 41 of the 44 allegations brought by ASIC over the awarding of the Australian Open broadcast rights to Seven in a 2013 deal worth $195.1 million over five years, well above the $100.75 million struck in the previous agreement in 2007.
However, the judge said Mitchell’s conduct had the tendency to undermine the authority of the then CEO of Tennis Australia, Steve Wood.
“His conduct in forwarding internal TA communications (emails) to Seven was quite unusual and unacceptable,” said the judge.
“And his conduct generally was undisciplined and fell well short of what was expected of a director in his position given the centrality and significance to TA of the negotiations with Seven.”
The judge imposed a $90,000 fine but did not disqualify Mitchell from acting as a director. He is currently a board director of Crown.
The court didn't make an order on costs.
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