Dispute over boat show in Cannes continues

16 February 2017

The ongoing battle over the rights to organise the increasingly important Cannes Yachting Festival, being waged between the Anglo-Dutch company Reed and the French Federation of Industries Nautiques (FIN), seems set to continue for some considerable time.

Following FIN’s move to serve notice on Reed in late October last year to end the latter’s management contracts for the Paris and Cannes boat shows, there have been a series of actions involving the courts which have left the situation none the clearer.

The latest judicial review, which took place on the 3rd of February, referred the matter to a higher court but apparently this is unlikely to reach a decision on the matter for some months.

Meanwhile, the two organisations are currently presenting separate cases to potential exhibitors at Cannes in September with neither side showing any indication of agreeing to step aside. If anything the dispute seems to have deepened following claims and counter claims in a series of press releases as well as in letters to members of the federation.

While appearing to concede the management of the Paris show, Reed, which claims to be the world’s largest organiser of exhibitions and trade fairs, is vigorously pursuing its claimed management rights to the Cannes event.

However, informed sources suggest that despite the posturing there may now be some behind the scenes diplomacy being employed to defuse the situation and that the mayor of Cannes has taken the initiative to invite the two sides to a conciliation meeting which will hopefully end the confusion as to which organisation exhibitors should be dealing with.

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