03/02/2020 Reachlocal UK Ltd & Anor v Bennett & Ors [2014] EWHC 3405 (QB) (21 October 2014) attempts to persuade them that they had been misled. There may well be commercial sense in making refunds to such customers: that is not for me to judge. But in my judgment it cannot be characterised as a reasonable step in mitigating the loss which had been caused. It was going to have no effect whatever in mitigation of the loss suffered, at least for the immediate future, and any effect which it was likely to have in the longer term, in terms of softening hearts towards ReachLocal, was almost entirely speculative. I therefore disallow that head, but allow the sums of £60,728 and £66,600. General damages 53. The principles for assessment of general damages in defamation are well established. An award of general damages for libel serves three functions: first, to act as a consolation to the claimant for the distress and embarrassment which he has suffered from the publication of defamatory words. That does not apply in this case, where the claimants are corporate bodies. Secondly, to compensate for the injury to the claimant's reputation; and thirdly, to act as vindication for his reputation. I bear in mind the overriding principle that, in order to comply with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, an award of damages must be proportionate to the legitimate aim of providing vindication. 54. A company stands in a slightly different position from an individual claimant, for it has no feelings to hurt, and it follows that considerations of aggravation which might be relevant if the claimant is an individual do not apply. However, the entitlement of a company to recover general damages was affirmed by the House of Lords in Jameel v Wall Street Journal [2007] 1 AC 359. A company's good name is a thing of value, but it can only be hit in its pocket. That is not to say that it may not merit vindication. 55. The need for damages to provide vindication was explained in the case of Broome v Cassell [1972] AC 1027 at p.1071 by Lord Hailsham LC who said: "Not merely can (the libel plaintiff) recover the estimated sum of his past and future losses, but, in case the libel, driven underground, emerges from its lurking place at some future date, he must be able to point to a sum awarded by a jury sufficient to convince a bystander of the baselessness of the charge." In McLaughlin v Lambeth BC [2011] EMLR 8 at [112], Tugendhat J observed: "… the main point of defamation proceedings is vindication. Vindication includes preventing, or reducing the risk of, future publications of the words complained of. The fact that the damage suffered so far may be small (if it is), is no indication of the extent of the damage which is prevented from occurring in the future, when a claimant in a libel action obtains a public retraction or a judgment in his favour from the court." 56. A reasoned judgment may provide some degree of vindication: see Purnell v Business Magazine Ltd [2008] 1 WLR 1. Laws LJ, who gave the main judgment, held that a prior narrative judgment rejecting a defence of justification was capable of providing some vindication of a claimant's reputation, but that there were also cases where the judgment would provide no or no significant or reckonable vindication, such as where a defence of justification has been struck out and no consideration has been given to the merits. Here I am assessing damages following a judgment entered in default. Given that this is not a contested decision on the merits, it seems to me that the effect on damages of any vindication in this judgment must be marginal. 57. I bear in mind that the very size of the special damage award in this case is likely to provide some measure of vindication. But the fact remains that any award of general damages should be sufficient to enable the claimants to counter the defendants' campaign and show beyond argument to those who operate in their area of business that the allegations made against them are baseless. 58. Factors which may be relevant to the level of general damages include the gravity of the allegation, especially insofar as it closely touches the claimants' business reputation, and the extent of publication, especially where the publishees are primarily customers of the claimants or at least people professionally interested in the claimants' field of operation (see eg John v MGN [1997] QB 586 at 607). In Jones v Pollard [1997] EMLR 233, Hirst LJ referred to the objective features of the libel itself, such as its gravity, its prominence, the circulation of the medium in which it was published, and any repetition. 59. In this case, the defendants have orchestrated a sustained campaign of denigration directed at the business of ReachLocal, which in practical terms means the business of the first claimant. That www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2014/3405.html 12/14