A High Court judge has ordered Formula One team boss Eddie Jordan to pay mobile phone giants Vodafone one million pounds today to cover their costs for a failed lawsuit.
Jordan had argued that Vodafone were entitled only to £600,000 while the company had sought a total of £1.5 million.
Mr Justice Langley accepted Jordan's offer to pay £600,000 pounds within 14 days and the remainder to follow on January 1st, 2004.
The same judge criticised Jordan in August for launching a "contrived and unsustainable" £150 million damages case against Vodafone over an alleged sponsorship deal. He also pointed to a number of 'blatant inaccuracies" in Jordan's oral evidence.
Jordan launched the claim in the High Court in June, arguing that Vodafone had wrongly pulled out of an agreement to sponsor Jordan's cars only to back rival Ferrari.
The trial lasted six weeks with Jordan applying to abandon his claim at the 11th hour and offering to pay all of Vodafone's costs at the highest indemnity level.
The judge said today that Vodafone were entitled to the costs of the case, and that the figures being talked about did not surprise or concern him because of the commercial importance to Vodafone of defending the claims.