Could you explain your tags about that one direction bussiness stuff?why would it be abot zayn or bg?i really dont understand these things so thanks in advance
Hi dear,
So basically the contingent liability could be any number of things. We have absolutely no way of knowing. The only general idea we have is the knowledge of what contingent liabilities are and the time when it came into play, 2015. From the post where the lawyer explained this, they said:
Essentially, a contingent liability is a potential future loss that a company is facing. The contingent liability will not become a present, payable loss until some triggering event happens (or fails to happen).
What made me think this could be about Zayn leaving was the fact that
it happened in 2015, the same year the contingent liability appeared in 1D's financial records
it was being disputed, which implies there was a lawsuit contesting the applicability of the contingent liability to the event it pertained to
Zayn leaving would likely constitute a breach in their contract and result in some form of penalty put into 1D's company, some form of financial penalty - because a member of a band leaving can reasonably and arguably lead to potential loss of future revenue, which is where the contingent liability could come into play. It also could apply to the general idea that 1D, as a company, are worth for example $50. If part of that company breaks off, a percentage of that value is gone. So Zayn leaving drops the company value from $50 to $40 instead - which could then lead to a contingent liability.
In regards to it being about Louis/bg, my general thought was that there was something related to it that triggered this contingent liability that was then disputed and came to some resolution in 2020 - which was coincidentally when Louis left Syco, but that is likely entirely separate from this and probably has no bearing on this.
There are also a number of other things it could've been about, could be about their finances, image clauses, the band ending (hiatus), tax issues, any number of boring business/industry things, etc etc etc.
We have absolutely no way of knowing what it is about. Or even if it was 1D themselves who used the contingent liability or if it was used "against" them. We don't know. We do know that it was triggered, then it was contested, and resolved in 2020. That is all. We don't know if it was resolved privately or a court agreement occurred. We don't know if it was dismissed. We don't know who had to pay the $24M to whom, or if it was ever paid. There's no way to know, at all.
If any lawyer has any corrections to what I've said above, please let me know. I am not a lawyer, this is my speculation given the information I have read.
Note: in relation to this, this and this posts.
Addition and clarification/correction here.
EDIT: CORRECTION
I was sent this correction and explanation by the lawyer mentioned at the start of this post (thanks @twopoppies for forwarding me this message):
