The America's Cup's Arbitration Panel (Acap) deducted one competition point from the Seattle team for breaking Cup rules by having three other syndicates' design secrets.

The point will be deducted from OneWorld Challenge's total score in the round-robin of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series.

However, Acap accepted that the material had not been used by the syndicate for design purposes.

The case came to light in February when a former OneWorld employee, Sean Reeves, claimed the bid had stolen boat and sail designs from other syndicates, including holders Team New Zealand.

OneWorld Challenge admitted to Acap that it did have some design data from three other syndicates, but asserted that the information was gained inadvertently and never used.

The documents that OneWorld admitted to having in their possession were:

• measurement certificates from yachts NZL57 and NZL60
• carbon fibre materials data certificates issued to Team NZ by its suppliers
• sail and mast design information relating to Prada's last campaign

Acap announced that possession of the information was a breach of competition rules.

And it also found a breach caused by OneWorld designer Laurie Davidson's holding a book of photographs showing tank testing for Team New Zealand's last campaign.

"The America's Cup Arbitration Panel has found that OneWorld did in fact breach the protocol as OneWorld had confessed to in its filing," said an Acap statement.

"The panel handed down a penalty to OneWorld of a one-point deduction from the total of points accrued in round-robin one and round-robin two of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Indemnity deal

Gary Wright, chief executive officer of OneWorld, said: "We always believed we were doing the right thing coming forward and bringing these issues before the panel to get them resolved once and for all."

"Launching us into the Louis Vuitton Cup with a point penalty, especially among this extremely strong group of challengers, is tough."

Meanwhile, an indemnity arrangement has been unveiled, which is expected to enable the arbitration panel to issue its rulings on a number of outstanding issues.

The panel had expressed concerns that the threat of legal action from mega-rich syndicates could prevent them making key decisions.

But the new pact - called a "Supplementary Deed of Indemnity" - would go a long way to protecting it from liability.