A group of 60 F1-enthousiasts, including some ...

Published on 16 January 1998 by Verstappen Info Page

A group of 60 F1-enthousiasts, including some pub and restaurant owners, has filed a complaint to the European Commission about the FIA's threat to cancel the Belgian Grand Prix. The group, headed by Belgian success lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont, claims that the FIA violates two articles of the Rome Treaty. The first violation would be the abuse of the FIA's dominant position and the second violation would be that agreements with international and national sports organizations to commercialize F1 races violate EU law. The EU will analyze the complaint seriously.

In a new Belgian law tobacco advertising and sponsoring is banned starting January 1, 1999. A regional Belgian court has already said this law is powerless because it is not in line with new EU legislation which is less strict. According to new EU rules tobacco sponsorship is fased out towards 2006.