The identities of groups behind a suspected smear campaign against petrol and convenience store giant OTR are set to be revealed within days. However, this information will be kept from the public pending a potential Federal Court trial.
OTR initiated legal action in March against The Civic Partnership, a prominent public relations and lobbying firm. The company alleges that a senior executive at the firm created fake social media identities to tarnish OTR’s reputation amid a multimillion-dollar underpayment class action.
This week, Federal Court Judge Patrick O’Sullivan ordered that documents revealing the identities of clients who hired The Civic Partnership for the campaign be provided to OTR as part of a pre-trial discovery process.
The Civic Partnership has seven days to produce documents detailing the terms of engagement between the PR firm and its clients, instructions given for the campaign, and records of payments made by the clients.
While these documents will be withheld from public view, they may become public if the case goes to trial. This disclosure could also lead to an early settlement between OTR and The Civic Partnership as part of ongoing mediation.
OTR, established by the Shahin family’s Peregrine Corporation and acquired by Viva Energy for $1.2 billion this year, accuses The Civic Partnership of orchestrating a campaign to damage its reputation following a class action that claimed OTR underpaid hundreds of employees over several years.
The class action was settled for $5.8 million in August 2022.
OTR alleges that The Civic Partnership and David Lau, one of its senior executives, acted on behalf of unidentified clients. In its legal claim, OTR asserts that Lau created a website, a petition, and used social media platforms Facebook and X to spread stories from aliases posing as disgruntled former employees. These aliases, according to OTR, were fabricated by Lau to serve The Civic Partnership’s clients’ interests.
The aliases included “Jack Musk,” “Sean Cook,” and “Joey Wong,” none of whom were actual OTR employees. OTR claims this amounted to misleading and deceptive conduct, damaging the company’s reputation.
David Lau left The Civic Partnership in April 2023, shortly after resigning from the Liberal Party. His departure followed an admission of using the fake identity “Sean Cook” to suppress reporting on Victorian state MP Renee Heath’s ties to her father’s controversial church. Lau is not a party to the OTR proceedings.
In its defence, The Civic Partnership acknowledges that Lau created aliases as part of a social media campaign related to OTR but denies that the campaign was intended to harm OTR’s business and reputation. The firm argues that OTR’s reputation had already suffered due to widely publicised wage theft allegations, judicial findings of underpayments, the multimillion-dollar settlement, and the appointment of former CEO Warren Wilmot, previously embroiled in an underpayment scandal at 7-Eleven.
Legal representatives for The Civic Partnership have stated that OTR’s claims are unsubstantiated and will be defended. Both parties declined to comment further on the matter.
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