Court Upholds $2.84 Million Payout for World Touring Melbourne
An Australian appeals court has backed a multimillion-dollar payout to music promoter World Touring Melbourne, cementing a costly legal fallout from the chaotic last-minute cancellation of the 2020 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix – and the Robbie Williams concert that was meant to soundtrack it.
A panel of three judges unanimously rejected an appeal by the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, confirming that the promoter is entitled to $2.84 million in compensation for lost earnings after the Williams show at Lakeside Stadium was scrapped.
The decision upholds a 2024 ruling by the Supreme Court of Victoria, where Justice Clyde Croft found that Grand Prix organizers had breached their contract with World Touring Melbourne and misled the company over the public health advice that underpinned the cancellation.
A weekend that unravelled in hours
The Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park was called off on March 13, 2020, just hours before gates were due to open. Fans were already queuing at the entrances when the announcement came, as the rapidly escalating COVID-19 crisis closed in on global sport.
Williams was scheduled to perform the following day as part of the race weekend entertainment program. His concert never got close to starting.
While the Grand Prix shut down, Melbourne itself did not fall completely silent that weekend. National Rugby League fixtures still went ahead, and a separate concert took place at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, underscoring the confusion and inconsistency that marked those first days of the pandemic response.
Misleading health advice at the heart of the case
The court battle turned on what organizers told the promoter about the stance of Victoria’s then chief health officer, Brett Sutton.
Justice Croft found that World Touring Melbourne had been misled when the Grand Prix Corporation claimed Sutton had ordered that the concert could not proceed in its planned format. The judge was clear: no such order existed.
At 4:25 p.m. on March 13, Grand Prix officials emailed the promoter, stating that Sutton had advised either cancelling the Grand Prix altogether or staging it without spectators. That message formed part of the rationale for pulling the pin on the Williams show.
Yet earlier that same day, Sutton had written to Grand Prix officials expressing support for cancelling the concert, while stressing that the final decision rested with the organizers themselves. The distinction proved crucial. The court concluded that the corporation went beyond the actual advice and presented it as a directive, not a recommendation.
With the appeal now dismissed, the financial and reputational cost of that misstep is locked in.
