Actualización de Mantrav International

For the original article click here: https://www.kwikchex.com/2012/09/asa-ruling-re-mantrav

Mantrav Fail in Attempt to Sue for Online Defamation

Malcolm Hardy, the owner of the Mantrav International business attempted to sue several people in the UK High Court recently, alleging defamation, claiming damages of £150,000 and seeking injunctions to prevent people mentioning his name or that of Mantrav International.

This Wednesday (5th December), his case was thrown out, with the judge ruling that it was ‘totally without merit’. Costs were awarded against Mr Hardy.

A lawyer acting for one of the defendants has written an informative and well reasoned article on his blog about the High Court action, expressing concerns that such cases should ever make it to court. https://judicialcat.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/mantrav-libel-case-self-represented.html

From our own perspective, we wholeheartedly agree with the comments made in the blog and are also concerned that such tactics can be employed in an attempt to silence honest opinion. Whilst KwikChex is renowned for tackling online defamation, much of which is related to anonymous and unsubstantiated reviews sites, we are passionately opposed to attempts to suppress justifiable criticism being published online. In the case of Mantrav, they were of course a KwikChex member originally but were terminated because of several issues and we followed up by complaining to the ASA and providing support to those customers that contacted us.

As per the article, by ‘Judicial Cat’ whilst those attacked maliciously and falsely online must have redress, it must never reach the stage where genuinely honest comments are prevented from being published by intimidation or any form of abuse of the legal system.