11KBW’s Anya Proops KC, Zac Sammour and Michael White (instructed by Mark Stephens & Elizabeth Morley at Howard Kennedy) are representing one of the world’s leading tennis player’s, Alexander Zverev, in his contractual claim brought against his former agent, Ace Group International, in the High Court. By his claim, Mr Zverev invites the court to declare that the agency contract he entered into with Ace in 2012, when he was only 15 years old, is unenforceable on restraint of trade grounds, particularly by reason of its very substantial duration, which Mr Zverev claims is excessive. The High Court (Andrew Hochhauser KC sitting as a Deputy Judge) has today allowed Mr Zverev’s application for a case management order under CPR 32.1 which operates so as to preclude the parties’ experts from relying in their evidence on alleged comparator contracts, save where those contracts have been disclosed into a lawyers-only confidentiality ring. The trial of the liability issues is due to be heard over nine days in December 2020.
