The Defamation Act 2013: We need to talk about Corporate Reputation

This article, firstly, contextualises corporate reputation as a valuable commercial asset; secondly, it considers whether, as the law stood before the Defamation Act 2013, there was an inequality of arms; thirdly, it analyses what the requirement of serious harm and the qualification of serious financial loss may mean in practice for corporate claimants, and the right to reputation. Specifically, through the lens of Tesla Motors Ltd v BBC, this article considers potential causation issues that corporate claimants may encounter when attempting to establish actual or likely serious harm arising from actual or likely serious financial loss and, consequently, questions whether this may result in an increase in applications by defendants for statements of case to be struck out in accordance with CPR 3.4, and for summary judgment pursuant to CPR 24