03/02/2020 Reachlocal UK Ltd & Anor v Bennett & Ors [2014] EWHC 3405 (QB) (21 October 2014) must be taken to be limited to publication in England and Wales. In addition, of course, the claimants rely on the reference in the email set out at [14] above to the defendants having sent out 500 emails in their first shot. 20. However, that is not an end to the libel claim. The claimants also complain of the defendants' action in posting on the fifth defendants' website in March 2014 emails sent by the first defendant on behalf of the fifth defendant to the claimants' solicitors. They rely in particular on an email of 19 March 2014, which was sent in answer to solicitors' correspondence threatening legal action. For present purposes, given the difficulty of reproducing the passages complained of in a manner which gives their correct sense, it is sufficient to gloss the email as alleging that Richard Bray, the first claimant's then country director, had lied to the fifth defendant, was guilty of an offence under Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006, had acted dishonestly, had made representations which he knew to be untrue and misleading, that he was an 'evil character' who went about committing fraud, knowingly mis-sold to his clients on a daily basis and encouraged his salesmen to do the same, and had knowingly contravened s.2 of the Fraud Act in a 'downright disgraceful' way. There is no personal claim by Mr Bray, but the claimants rely on the allegations against him, as an employee of the first claimant acting in the course of his employment, as reflecting adversely on the claimants also. Slander 21. There is also a slander claim, founded on telephone calls made to customers of the claimants. (a) The claimants rely on a voicemail left by the second defendant on 26 February 2014 on one customer's number, in the course of which the following was said: "Good afternoon. My name is Craig Anderson. I'm calling in reference to your reach local campaign. Basically it has come to our attention that the company have misrepresented and mis-sold you the current campaign that you are on. We have had this information passed to us from an ex-employee of ReachLocal and basically they're taking more money out of you guys than they are actually spending on the campaign. If you can give me a call back when you get a chance, my name is Craig Anderson. I am a freelance the PC consultant and I'm just basically making people aware of this for ethical reasons basically." (b) A voicemail was left with another customer, followed by a telephone call on 13 February 2014. In the course of the voicemail, the second defendant said that the claimants were 'scamming' the customer, and that he had already called fifteen other customers of the claimants to tell them the same thing. (c) Three other telephone calls are pleaded, but no words complained of are set out, so I shall disregard them. 22. There is no doubt that the two calls specifically pleaded were calculated to disparage the claimants – or at least the first claimant – in their business, and are therefore actionable without proof of special damage within s.2, Defamation Act 1952. In fact, of course, there is a substantial special damage claim. 23. The claimants rely on a telephone call made to the second defendant by one of their own marketing consultants on 21 February 2014, who introduced himself as a client of ReachLocal who wanted to know what the second defendant had to say about the claimants. In the course of that call, the second defendant said that he had an old friend who got wind of fraud at ReachLocal so left the business; that the claimants pocketed 60% of the money which they told their customers was being spent on advertising on Google; that all ReachLocal's marketing consultants were in on it; that he was not trying to make anything out of this information, but he was making an ethical call because people were being scammed; however, he did work with associated agencies who would do a fantastic job for the caller, whereas people like ReachLocal were just 'shitting on the little guys'. In the course of that conversation, the second defendant boasted of having contacted 50 companies. www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2014/3405.html 6/14