The increasingly acrimonious mood within the publicly -listed German media companies has been further stoked with the news of Advanced Medien's filing of a suit for damages of Euros 4m against former members of the company's management board.

Former executives Christophe Montague, Hanns-Arndt Jovy and Veronika Morawetz were named in the suit filed at Munich's Regional Court which claims "that the defendants entered into and approved film purchasing agreements for which the company did not receive adequate compensation. Furthermore, several agreements for the sale of license rights were concluded in fiscal years 1999 and 2000 for the purpose of generating sales revenues, which, according to the current management board and to the legal opinion of an external auditor, are null and void".

According to a statement, Advanced incurred "substantial damages due to these disadvantageous and void contracts concluded with companies of the founder family Jovy, which contributed significantly to the high losses in fiscal years 1999 and 2000".

The communique pointed out that Advanced's directors and officers were insured by a D&O insurance policy during the fiscal years in question and that the insurance company had been notified.