GroupM launches legal action against auditor over ‘misuse’ of confidential Mediacom Australia documents

June 30, 2016 10:42

Media agency holding group GroupM has launched legal action against media auditing company FirmDecisions, accusing it of misusing confidential documents it was accidentally sent by, among others, Mediacom Australia.

The agency is one of a number of GroupM agencies listed in the action filed in the UK’s High Court, with the WPP company accusing FirmDecisions of breaching non-disclosure agreements after it was accidentally sent reports by agency staff.

Court documents obtained by Mumbrella quote a “senior FirmDecisions employee”, back in 2014, saying the media auditor should keep a Mediacom Australia document sent by GroupM’s finance division FinancePlus “up our sleeve” to use at a later date. The company was subsequently forced to make a formal apology to Mediacom Australia.

In its defence filing FirmDecisions claims that in July 2014 a Mediacom employee “mistakenly” sent “a spreadsheet listing monthly billings to each of Mediacom’s clients with a reconciliation against ‘AVD'”, when sending a report about its client FinancePlus.

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Nic Christensen

Nic Christensen worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2016, in roles including deputy editor and media & technology editor. He is former media writer for The Australian and has also worked as a reporter for The Daily Telegraph and senior producer for Radio 2GB.

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