Cases

Tiscali UK Ltd v British Telecommunications Plc

Facts

BT sent a letters to many of T's broadband customers in an attempt to persuade them to change to BT's service, referencing a possible takeover of T and indicating that that might affect the recipients' broadband service. The recipients were invited to visit a page on BT's website containing a similar message.

T sued, alleging that the letter and page on the website were libellous. It relied, not only on the natural and ordinary meaning of the words, but also on an innuendo that T had been guilty of a lack of honesty and candour towards its customers by failing to warn them that the continuity and/or reliability of their broadband service was potentially in jeopardy if T was sold.

BT applied to strike out the defamation claim, on the basis that it would be perverse for a jury to find that the words bore the pleaded defamatory meaning, or any meaning defamatory of T.

Also