GroupM sends wrong client docs to media auditor – followed by potential law suit

Missed this one until Tom Denford and David Indo of ID Comms covered it in this week’s #MediaSnack.

WPP’s GroupM media behemoth has lodged a High Court claim against Ebiquity’s Firm Decisions saying it may be in breach of its non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with GroupM by not deleting “four or five” confidential documents about clients’ media spend that were sent in error. FD, which is one of the auditing firms involved in the US Association of National Advertisers’ investigation into media rebates and other matters, says it has deleted them and informed GroupM accordingly. GroupM also alleges a senior FD employee said the firm planned to keep the documents “up its sleeve” for further use. FD denies this too.

All so hilarious and, as Denford and Indo observe, a sign of the toxic relations between some media agencies (GroupM includes Maxus, MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare among others) and media auditors.

But what was GroupM – or its component parts – doing sending all these confidential documents to Firm Decisions? As Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell might have put it: “To lose one confidential document, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose four or five looks like carelessness.”

And then to sue Firm Decisions over its own cock-up? Talk about monumental cheek – or arrogance.