According to a report in Sports Business Journal, The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit yesterday scheduled oral arguments between the ATP and its German tournament for Nov. 17 to debate whether the event has to pay legal fees to the organizing body that top $20M. The German event sued the ATP in ‘07 for demoting the tourney as part of a schedule realignment. The case went to trial in ‘08 and the ATP won, and later also on appeal at the Third Circuit. The ATP passed a bylaw in ‘07 requiring a tournament that sues the group unsuccessfully to reimburse legal costs. The Hamburg event is challenging that bylaw.
Each side will get 15 minutes to present its case. If the ATP does not recover the legal fees from the tournament, insurance will reimburse the men’s tennis body some of the amount. The tournament is partially owned by the Qatari Tennis Federation.
