Ferrari Locked in Legal Battle Against Its Biggest Fan
Sammy Wasem, 21, is fighting Ferrari in court with his father, demanding the Italian sports car builder pay them 10 million Swiss francs.
It all began six years ago when Wasem started a Ferrari fan page on Facebook that quickly grew to be one of the largest car-related pages on the social media site. Within a year, there were more than 500,000 fans. Ferrari contacted the Wasems in March, 2009 to say legal issues were forcing the company to take over official administration of the page.
The Wasems allowed it to become Ferrari’s official fan page and continued managing it for four years without being paid and without signing a written contract.
Last year, Ferrari relinquished their administration rights and now Wasem and his father are suing Ferrari for at least 10 million Swiss francs (roughly $11 million). They claim to have put 5,500 unpaid hours into managing the page. Ferrari is also suing the Wasems, saying they misused the company’s trademark for personal messages including Wasem’s 18th birthday party and the promotion of non-Ferrari merchandise.
[Source: Automotive News Europe]
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Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.
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