Court in Frankfurt am Main confirmed legality of the ESC President‘s actions

Court in Frankfurt am Main confirmed legality of the ESC President‘s actions.

The Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main, in its decision of 22 November 2024, confirmed the legality of the ESC President's actions in his claim for protection of honour and dignity against the President of the ISSF, FITAV and the Finnish Shooting Sport Federation.

The court ordered the defendants to:

1. refrain from asserting and/or disseminating the following statements on pain of a fine of up to EUR 250,000 to be imposed for each case of infringement:
a) "Mr. Ratner has stepped out of line and breached his loyalty to the ISSF and his authority under the ISSF Constitution. Mr. Ratner took sides at a 'political' event and publicly supported one of the candidates";
b) "Mr. Ratner immediately resigned during the General Assembly after Mr. Rossi was elected President of the ISSF and did not hand over the day-to-day running of the ISSF to the newly elected Secretary General. This is an example of very poor leadership";
c) "Under Mr. Ratner's leadership, the ESC Presidium has decided to hold the final competitions of the III European Games in a format that has been abandoned and replaced by the ISSF and published in time for the European Games".

2. The Defendants are ordered to retract the statements in the aforementioned paragraph 1. vis-à-vis the Plaintiff and all member organisations of the European Shooting Confederation (ESC) and at the same time to correct the fact that:
a) Mr. Ratner did not breach his loyalty to the ISSF and his powers under the ISSF Statutes when presenting the presidential candidates in November 2022;
b) Mr. Ratner duly handed over the reins to the new Secretary General after Mr. Rossi was elected President;
c) Mr. Ratner had the final competitions of the III European Games carried out in a correct competition format.

3. To pay the legal costs.

The court set the amount in dispute at 30,000 euros.

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