Prada fined over court challenge

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) -- America's Cup challenger Prada has been fined $10,000 and ordered to pay another $3,000 in costs after filing a motion against the American syndicate Oracle in New Zealand's High Court.

In its decision, the America's Cup arbitration panel said the rule preventing challengers from going to any other court or tribunal was clearly intended to prevent the "sorry spectacle" of competing teams resorting to the judicial process to resolve questions related to the cup.

The Italian-based Prada syndicate filed the motion on June 18, then discontinued it two days later. The proceedings related to a dispute about the siting of an Oracle syndicate barge in the waters off the America's Cup village.

On June 21, Oracle sought a ruling from the arbitration panel that Prada had breached Cup protocol by using a court or tribunal other than the panel.

"Prada, as the Challenger of Record, should have been particularly mindful of that intent," the panel said.

Prada won the Louis Vuitton Cup two years ago for the right to sail against Team New Zealand in the Cup final, which it lost to in five straight races.

The provision dates to the 1990 fight between New Zealand's Mercury Bay and San Diego in the New York Appeals Court, which described resolution of the competition in court as the most "distasteful innovation of all."

The panel said Prada's withdrawal of the filed proceedings did not cure the breach of the protocol, but lessened its seriousness.

Prada has to pay the fine within 21 days.

 

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