In the 2020 lockdown, Adidas wants to suspend rents for its closed stores in Germany. A media outcry goes through the country, led by the “Bild” newspaper. The initiator of the campaign is publisher Matthias Döpfner. Problem: The Axel Springer boss rents to the sporting goods manufacturer himself.
In March and April 2020, Germany is in partial lockdown due to the corona pandemic. Retail is at a standstill, shops are closed. During this time, the sporting goods manufacturer Adidas decided to suspend rent payments for its stores. The action caused a nationwide scandal, the driving medium is the “Bild” newspaper, which took up the topic for days and reported the story as a great “Adidas embarrassment”. More than two years later, it has now come to light that Axel Springer boss Matthias Döpfner initiated the campaign. This is reported by the “Financial Times”. Döpfner was driven by the fact that he himself is a co-owner of an old building in Berlin that houses an Adidas store, the rent for which Döpfner would not have received.
As a result of the campaign, Adidas faced widespread criticism from the media and politicians. The member of parliament Florian Post even publicly burned an Adidas jersey. The company admitted that it made a mistake and acted in a disorganized manner.
The self-interest could go against the publisher’s code of conduct, which states: “Everyone at Axel Springer takes care to separate personal and private interests from those of the company.” Conflicts of interest should be disclosed in good time and further action should be coordinated with superiors or the compliance department.
The Axel Springer publishing house denied the allegations as “absurd”. Döpfner passed the information on to the newspaper because he “knew immediately that it was a matter of outstanding public interest.” In the publisher’s statement, Döpfner emphasized that he would act in this way again. He finally disclosed his personal interest to the then “Bild” editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt.
