Lawsuit: Corrado Formigli and Rai will not pay 5 million to Fiat
The final Court of Appeal has definitively established this, rejecting the appeal of the car company (ordered to pay the legal expenses) against the journalist being found innocent.
The journalist Corrado Formigli and Rai will not have to compensate Fiat with five million euro as a previous court had established. The legal matter is definitively closed with this outcome eight years after the disputed television broadcast. The last word has been delivered by the final Court of Appeal which has not accepted the appeal of the car company following the sentence of the Turin Court of Appeal, and acknowledged that Formigli correctly exercised the right of criticism. The Turin Court of Appeal in 2013 had absolved the journalist and Rai from the accusation of defamation. Il Fatto Quotidiano reported it on the 7th June 2018 (read here).
In the original trial, Formigli and the TV company had been sentenced to pay compensation of 5 million euro to Fiat for a broadcast transmitted on the 2nd December 2010 during the programme AnnoZero. In the broadcast, the journalist compared the Alfa Romeo Mito with other two cars pointing out deficiencies in the Italian car with respect to the foreign competitors.
The final Court of Appeal has, moreover, ordered Fiat to pay the legal fees of Rai and Formigli reckoned overall to be 40,000 euro plus related expenses.
RDM
