03/02/2020 Reachlocal UK Ltd & Anor v Bennett & Ors [2014] EWHC 3405 (QB) (21 October 2014) is supplied in detail in that spreadsheet, customer by customer, and produces the total sum of £302,431.78. 40. Mr Bray explained that the spreadsheet had been compiled by two members of his client care team, led by the UK operations manager, Stephanie Ford. Their job was to manage customers who wished to cancel or for some reason needed special care. The customers on the spreadsheet had all indicated that they were not happy with ReachLocal, so Mr Bray was involved in the process of trying to persuade them not to cancel their future cycles. The only customers listed on the spreadsheet were those who had been confirmed as cancelling after contact from the second or fifth defendants. 41. Mr Bray gave a number of examples in his written evidence of the circumstances in which these cancellations took place. For example, West London College terminated its campaigns with ReachLocal in these terms, having received emails from the fifth defendant: 'Following our meeting this morning arising from the shocking revelations about your business model, I regret that I have no alternative but to cancel our contracts with ReachLocal'. Other examples given by Mr Bray, all of which specifically identified the defendants' communications as the deciding factor, related to Travel Centre UK, Essex Bi-Fold Doors, Fight City Gym and Fischer Future Heat UK. All of these customers, on Mr Bray's evidence, had previously been satisfied with the first claimant's service. 42. In his oral evidence, Mr Bray was asked what the reasons were for the spreadsheet customers' decisions to leave. He said, with admirable and unhesitating candour, that there were three reasons. One was that they felt harassed by the second or fifth defendants and wished to cancel to avoid further harassment. Another was that they now doubted the first claimant's credibility and the value of dealing with it. They did not want to be associated with a company of bad reputation which might cheat them, and wanted their advertising handled professionally. A third was that they had learned from the first or second defendant that the defendants had obtained a customer list from an internet marketing consultant who had recently left the first claimant, which led them to re-evaluate their contacts with the first claimant out of concern for the security of their business. 43. In other words, all three reasons flowed from contacts which the defendants had with the first claimant's customers, but only one of the three reasons – the second – was one which was caused by the publication of defamatory material. 44. Mr Bray was asked further about this, in an attempt to identify which had been the dominant reason. He gave examples of four customers whom he had contacted directly. One was We Buy Any Home, who believed what they had been told by the defendants and did not want to be associated with a company which was not of good repute. Polani Travel and the Energy Trust had both been concerned for the second reason (being associated with a company of bad reputation, and having lost faith in the first claimant's credibility), but in Polani's case harassment had also been a factor, and in the case of Energy Trust, a further factor had been the issue of confidentiality. By contrast, the London School of Makeup had been more concerned by the harassment factor. 45. Mr Bray explained that the 71 customers listed on the spreadsheet cancelled their commitment to the first claimant during the period February to September 2014. The first claimant's projected revenue for 2014 was £32.25m, based on actual growth in preceding years, but that forecast has now been degraded to £23.60m, mainly as a result of the loss of clients. Projected figures for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation fell from £4.347m to £510,000. For the month of March, projected revenue was £2.377m, whereas actual revenue was £2.241m; for the month of April, projected revenue was £2.385m against actual revenue of £1.833m. There was no other substantial cause of the customer loss except the activities of the defendants. 46. I have no doubt whatever that the first claimant has suffered very substantial loss as a direct result of the publication of the various defamatory communications complained of. There has clearly been a calculated and cynical campaign against the first claimant by those who act for the fifth defendant, and its success is hardly surprising. I see no reason of principle why the first claimant should not recover the sums lost by reason of the decision of customers not to proceed with cycles of advertising which had been booked but not paid for. The total sum involved, as I have said, is £302,431.78. www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2014/3405.html 10/14