Australian Grand Prix Loses Appeal Over $2.84 Million Concert Payout

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation has been dealt a costly legal defeat, losing its bid to overturn a $2.84 million compensation order stemming from the cancelled Robbie Williams concert on the doomed 2020 race weekend.

A three-judge Court of Appeal panel on Thursday backed a 2024 Victorian Supreme Court ruling in favour of live music promoter World Touring Melbourne, unanimously refusing the Grand Prix organisers leave to appeal.

The decision locks in a multimillion-dollar payout over an event that never happened.

COVID chaos, contracts and a cancelled show

The Williams concert was scheduled for March 14, 2020 at Lakeside Stadium, as a centrepiece of the Australian Grand Prix entertainment program at Albert Park.

The Formula One race itself never made it to the start line. On March 13, just hours before gates were due to open, the Grand Prix was axed amid the rapidly escalating COVID-19 crisis.

Williams – whose catalogue includes Let Me Entertain You and Angels – was set to perform the following day. His show was cancelled as the sporting world shut down around him.

But while the pandemic framed the chaos, it was the organisers’ handling of public health advice that ultimately cost them in court.

Misleading health advice at the heart of the case

World Touring Melbourne sued the Australian Grand Prix Corporation in 2024, arguing the concert was wrongfully cancelled after the corporation provided misleading information about government health advice.

Justice Clyde Croft found the promoters had been deceived.

In a critical email sent at 4:25pm on March 13, organisers told World Touring Melbourne that then chief health officer Brett Sutton had advised the Grand Prix needed to be cancelled or staged without spectators.

That was not what Sutton had said.

Earlier that day, the CHO had texted Grand Prix officials indicating he supported the decision to cancel the Robbie Williams concert, but made clear the final call rested with organisers, not with him.

Justice Croft ruled that the corporation’s representation of Sutton’s position was false and amounted to misleading conduct, leading to the wrongful cancellation of the show and the promoter’s loss of earnings.

He ordered the Australian Grand Prix Corporation to pay $2.84 million in damages to World Touring Melbourne.

Appeal shut down

The Grand Prix Corporation took the fight to the Court of Appeal, seeking to overturn Croft’s decision and the hefty damages bill.

The panel of three justices backed the original judgment in full, siding with the promoter and shutting the door on the corporation’s challenge. Their unanimous refusal to grant leave to appeal leaves the Supreme Court ruling intact and the payout payable.

The contrast with the rest of that weekend still stings. While the Grand Prix and Williams’ concert were scrapped, other major events in Melbourne went ahead, including National Rugby League fixtures and a concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

Four years on from the frantic hours that killed off the 2020 Australian Grand Prix, the legal fallout has finally crossed the finish line – and the race organisers are the ones paying the price.