German company Henkel says a sponsorship deal apparently agreed to with the Mercedes GP team was put together by an ex-employee acting without authorization, and that it will not be honoring the partnership.
Henkel has issued a statement arguing that it has no responsibility for the three-year contract, which it says was worth 90 million euros ($132m), and that it informed Mercedes in September that the deal was invalid.
Its statement argues that the Formula 1 team – which was still operating as Brawn GP at the time – should have been more thorough in checking the deal and the Henkel representative it was negotiating with. The case is the subject of a legal dispute.