Wine merchant demands 30 million from SRG

As the newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag writes in its current issue, the payment order reached the Bern-Mittelland debt collection office on Thursday. In December 2013, Giroud was accused of wine adulteration in an RTS report without presumption of innocence. In October, the UBI narrowly rejected a complaint by Giroud (Werbewoche.ch reported), but the public prosecutor's office in Vaud recently acquitted Giroud of the suspicion of wine falsification. This has strengthened the wine trader's intention to file a lawsuit against SRG. As Schweiz am Sonntag is said to have learned from his environment, Giroud accuses SRG of having ruined his reputation as a serious wine expert and of being responsible for the loss of major customers like Denner. Moreover, he could not sell his wine estate at a decent price due to the story.

Giroud and SRG are at loggerheads as a result of several reports. The Walliser accuses the company of not being willing to make any compromises. For example, unlike the newspaper Le Temps, which was also involved in the reporting, it did not agree to a suspension of the statute of limitations - the statute of limitations for a possible lawsuit is short.

In the meantime, Giroud is no longer operationally active in his wine shop, but is mainly concerned with restoring his tarnished reputation. This reputation is not only affected by the accusations of cheating: The Valaisan was convicted in July for document forgery and tax fraud in the canton of Geneva is being investigated on suspicion of hacking attacks on journalists. (hae/SaS)

Image: Keystone