AOC lose Telstra battle, vow to win ad war

Wednesday, 25 October 2017:

A disappointed Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has vowed to continue to protect financial backers of its teams, despite losing a court appeal against Telstra.

The AOC will be forced to pay Telstra's legal fees after the Federal Court's dismissal of the national Olympic body's appeal against Telstra over its 2016 "I Go To Rio" marketing campaign.

In the 34 advertisements spread across multiple platforms, Telstra - a sponsor of the Australian Team at previous Games - promoted its live streaming service for the Rio Olympics through its partnership with the Seven Network.

"Action was taken in this case in order to support our Olympic sponsors and in particular the investment made by our exclusive telecommunications sponsor, Optus," AOC chief executive Matt Carroll said on Wednesday.

"The AOC receives no government funding and relies entirely on sponsorship to send our Olympic teams to the Games.

"It will continue to prioritise protection of the investment our sponsors make and to take action against those seeking to capitalise on the Olympic movement without authority."

The AOC claimed the ads - and their references to the "Olympics" - were an ambush, and unsuccessfully took the matter to court in July 2016 before the Games began.

The committee appealed that in February, but the court unanimously found in Telstra's favour that it had made clear its partnership was with Seven and not the AOC, IOC or Australian Olympic team.

But Carroll said he was not concerned this would open the floodgates for other non-sponsors to leverage off the Olympics.

"The judgement does not mean that businesses generally can engage in Olympic-themed advertising. It dealt with very specific facts," he said.

"Telstra had entered into an agreement with Channel Seven, the exclusive Australian broadcaster of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, and Telstra's conduct was held to be permissible in that context."

Telstra on Wednesday welcomed the decision, and said it had updated its television commercial with a disclaimer that it was not a partner of the IOC or any national association or team.

"We're delighted the appeal court today confirmed the original decision that our advertising did no more than promote our relationship with Seven and did not suggest an affiliation with the Olympics," a spokesman said.

"We have always maintained that our advertising complied with the law and today's decision has again confirmed that.

"We were disappointed that this dispute even made its way to court, especially after we proactively changed our advertising to make it even clearer that we were not an official sponsor of the Olympic Games."






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