"A fired executive at WPP is suing the advertising agency giant, accusing the company of retaliating against him and firing him after he raised concerns that the group's media investment division was allegedly running an improper kickback operation."
"The lawsuit says that Foster grew increasingly concerned about a practice within GroupM's trading division known as "volume-based discounts." GroupM would leverage the power of its billions of dollars in client ad budgets to secure incentives from media owners - such as cash rebates or free or discounted inventory - but not always disclose or pass these back to clients, the lawsuit alleges."
"Receiving media rebates isn't illegal in the US. That said, the ad industry has previously been warned by legal experts that rebates could amount to a breach of contract or even fraud if not disclosed to the client or if advertisers were deceived about the practice. Public companies are required to accurately record all income, including rebates, in their financial statements."
A long-serving executive at GroupM/WPP Media has sued WPP, alleging retaliation and wrongful termination after raising concerns about undisclosed incentives. The executive led Motion Content Group and reports that GroupM's trading division used "volume-based discounts" to obtain cash rebates or discounted inventory from media owners by leveraging extensive client ad budgets. The suit alleges those incentives were not consistently disclosed or passed back to advertiser clients and that WPP terminated him instead of investigating. Receiving rebates is not illegal in the US, but nondisclosure can breach contracts or amount to fraud, and public companies must accurately report all income, including rebates.
Read at Business Insider
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