MR JUSTICE WARBY
Approved Judgment
NT1 & NT2 v Google LLC
(at [59]-[66]), and cannot be repeated here lest they serve to identify NT1. But it is
fair to say that the Court accepted the trial Judge’s view of the roles of NT1 and
Fitzgerald, and found that NT1 was the principal actor in the false accounting
conspiracy, which had involved “the corruption of others”. The Court of Appeal,
reducing Mr Fitzgerald’s sentence, found that he had been a young second-incommand to NT1.
77.
The third URL complained of by NT1 takes one to an extract from a book (“the Book
Extract”) first published some two years after the Court of Appeal decision. The Book
Extract comprises a headline and 6 paragraphs of text. The content is similar to that of
the First and Second Articles.
78.
A recent Google search, a copy of which is in the papers, throws up a snippet from
each of the First Article, the Second Article and the Book Extract. Snippets from the
Articles appear as items one and two on the first page of the search. A snippet of the
Book Extract is item eight on page two. The snippets are set out in the Private
Judgment (at [67]-[68]). They were the subject of some submissions by Mr
Tomlinson in closing, but as the pleaded complaint is one of inaccuracy in the
underlying publications, not the snippets, I do not consider it would be right to assess
the snippets.
The complaints
79.
Six complaints of inaccuracy are made. They are not all in the same form, but the
commonest format adopted is to pick out some word(s) or phrase(s) from one or more
of the three URLs complained of and assert baldly that “The claimant did not
‘[QUOTE WORD(S)/PHRASE(S)]’”. The pleaded case does not identify which of
the URLs contains the alleged inaccuracy. No particulars of inaccuracy are provided.
This is not especially transparent or helpful. It has required me to carry out an analysis
of where the alleged inaccuracies are to be found. That analysis suggests that there are
three complaints about the First Article, five about the Second Article (three of which
relate to that article only), and two about the Book Extract. The claimant’s approach
also seems to beg the question of what sense a given word or phrase bears, when read
in its context. I cannot help feeling that in a context such as the present – where the
claimant sues in respect of media publications – he should be expected to specify the
meaning(s) he attributes to particular words or phrase, and which he says is
inaccurate. A claimant should also give particulars of inaccuracy. Those are wellestablished requirements of a statement of case in a defamation or malicious
falsehood claim, which are surely appropriate in this context for the same reasons. It
is after all NT1 who alleges inaccuracy, and so the burden of proof rests on him, as
Mr Tomlinson accepts.
The right approach in principle
80.
NT1’s case is that there have been breaches of the first part of the Fourth Principle:
the requirement that personal data “shall be accurate”. The requirement that data be
“kept up to date” does not have any application in this context. There has been some
dispute about how to decide whether a published article is “inaccurate” for this
purpose. Two sources of law have been addressed.