Spanish ban on advertising on public TV (10/08/2009)
WFA research shows insight into global audience measurement (31/07/2009)
Contagious: "The rise of own brands" (31/07/2009)
Bing to power Yahoo! as part of global search deal (31/07/2009)
BRICs well-placed for economic recovery (28/07/2009)
Germany: Sentence passed on case against former Carat/Aegis employees
Date: 29/05/2009
More developments have come to light in the ongoing case in Germany in relation to Alexander Ruzicka, former Carat/Aegis CEO for Central Europe. Ruzicka was being tried, together with former Head of Buying David Linn, on 86 counts of fraud. The Wiesbaden court sentenced Ruzicka to 11 years, 3 months. Linn was previously given two years probation and forced to pay the agency back €1.9 million. Linn had pleaded guilty, in contrast to Ruzicka who maintained he only did what was in the best interests of the agency. Ruzicka is to appeal the case. More information is available for WFA members in article below (in German).
WFA's advertiser association member in Germany, OWM, has been fighting for improved transparency in the German media business for many years. As stated in the WFA's Media Charter, advertisers in Germany believe that "Advertisers expect to benefit entirely from all the volume/frequency discounts earned by themselves directly and from any share of such discounts earned by their agencies according to the individual merit of their business.... The remuneration explicitly agreed with the advertiser should be the only source of revenue for the agency for their work on that business". As one example of how OWM have been aiming to achieve this, OWM members receive special individual reports from all TV stations on the exact number of delivered TV spots, both paid and free-of-charge to enable improved monitoring of their media agencies.
One OWM (and WFA) member is currently in a legal conflict with Carat. A court in Munich recently took a decision which is important for all advertisers: Carat has been forced to provide this company with the information on all rebates, including agency rebates that they had been able to negotiate with this advertisers' money. This is another step towards more transparency and fully in line with OWM's position and proposals. Members of OWM can receive special legal consultancy on this topic. For more information, contact Joachim Shütz [email protected]
WFA will be closely monitoring developments in Germany. As a top 5 global ad market (by media investment), these events could well have ramifications for media buying in other EU markets and elsewhere.
For more information on this please contact Robert Dreblow: [email protected]
Documents:
Urteil.pdf
