A Spanish businessman and the owner of a professional Chilean football club has settled an action in the Irish High Court over an Amazon Prime show about the 2015 Fifa corruption scandal.
The settlement to Dr Jorge Segovia Bonet, which is without an admission of liability, was in relation to a popular Chilean drama series El Presidente which he claimed had defamed him.
Dr Jorge Segovia Bonet is the owner of the Chilean soccer club Union Espanola.
As part of the settlement, it has been agreed that any alleged offending material would be removed along with any reference to Dr Segovia Bonet. It is understood a substantial six-figure sum was also paid to the businessman along with legal costs.
The proceedings were brought by Dr Segovia Bonet and SEK International Institution, a privately run educational organisation associated with a network of international secondary schools of which Dr Segovia Bonet was president, and were against Amazon Digital UK, Amazon Media, Amazon Data Services and Amazon Europe Core.
The series El Presidente, which is available for streaming in Ireland and the rest of Europe, charts events surrounding the 2015 US federal case against Fifa.
In the High Court on Tuesday, Mr Justice Alexander Owens was told the case had been settled without an admission of liability, and it was agreed that any alleged offending material would be removed along with any reference to Dr Segovia Bonet.
Outside court, Dr Segovia Bonet’s solicitor Paul Tweed said the defamation action in relation to a broadcast on Amazon Prime had taken over four years to be resolved.
Referring to it as a groundbreaking settlement, he said it involved the removal of the alleged offending material on a worldwide basis.
Mr Tweed said fortunately his client had the financial strength to take on a global broadcaster, which has operations around the world, “making it all the more difficult to establish an appropriate jurisdiction to take legal action in the first place.”