CMS Cameron McKenna client gets what it really really wants

CMS Cameron McKenna is celebrating victory against the Spice Girls in a dispute over a failed sponsorship deal.

High Court judge Mrs Justice Arden ruled last Wednesday that the Spice Girls had been guilty of “unintentional misrepresentation” when they failed to inform Italian scooter manufacturer Asprilia SpA of Geri Halliwell’s departure from the band.

Asprilia, based near Venice, developed a special version of one of its scooters and wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds on marketing in the belief there were five Spice girls, not four.

The company expected to sell 10,000 scooters but only 2,000 were eventually produced.

It claimed £434,000 in damages after the Spice Girls initially sued for £212,500 they claimed Asprilia owed them.

Camerons partner Susan Barty says: “Normally there is no duty is disclose those type of facts but in this case there was an exception.

“By their words or conduct the band unfairly induced our client to enter the contract.”

Damages and costs in the case will be worked out at a hearing later this year, when the possibility of an appeal will also be considered.

Lee & Thompson, which acted for the Spice Girls, says in a statement: “It is as yet unclear whether Asprilia will in fact be awarded any part of the £430,000. Indeed the Spice Girls may yet end up with judgment in their favour.”

Asprilia was the sponsor of the 1998 Spiceworld Tour.