That depends on whether a company device or company account was used to send the messages and the policies in place to cover such use. You would expect Red Bull to have a policy that explicitly covers the use of such devices, and in the case of BYOD for the use of personal equipment for company work. At least some of the messages involved are sent from work devices (Horner references attempting to call both of her phones for instance), and many of the problem messages are interspersed within messages obviously related to work. It's not as clearcut as you say.TFSA wrote: ↑04 Mar 2024, 18:44Redacting evidence that only concerns two people can hardly qualify as redacting. It would be obvious who the evidence concerned.
Also, I'm not talking about data protection laws. I'm talking about simple privacy laws. In most western countries, there's laws that protects written correspondence (and spoken conversations) from being illicitly obtained, spied on or recorded by third parties. It's usually illegal to share correspondance between people, unless you are a participant of the conversation. Red Bull was handed evidence by the complainant, and as such they - and the lawyer they appointed - are privy to that evidence. They cannot share it outside of that, unless given permission.
I believe that in the wake of that ruling the FIA changed their policies after to ensure team principals had a license to compete.TFSA wrote: ↑04 Mar 2024, 18:44Briatore challenged the exclusion in court and won. A court ruled that the exclusion was illicit. The same goes for Pat Simmonds. They were even entitled to compensation.
We'll have to agree to disagree. I've point out the rules I believe Red Bull could be judged to have been in breach. If they cannot sanction Horner directly then they can definitely sanction the team.TFSA wrote: ↑04 Mar 2024, 18:44And just like Briatore did, Horner can challenge that in court, and is likely to win.
The FIA does not have as much power and influence as you believe they do in this matter. This is a jurisdiction matter. The FIA isn't - and shouldn't - be interfering in employee affairs at company. They're charged with running the motorsports. That's their job.
Someone blew a private matter open (or posted faked evidence, but let's assume not). That's a big PR problem for Red Bull. But it's not a legal problem.
It may well be a moot point anyway as the team appears to be disintegrating as each day passes.