RPC secures Norwich Pharmacal relief against domain registrar and hosting provider and two related companies

International law firm RPC has successfully acted pro bono for a claimant in obtaining Norwich Pharmacal relief against three related entities, comprising a domain registrar and hosting provider, its sister company and their parent company.

In an anonymised judgment, Mrs Justice Hill DBE, sitting in the King’s Bench Division, Media and Communications List, found that the conditions for Norwich Pharmacal relief against the Second to Fourth Defendants were satisfied.

The application arose from thousands of internet domains in which the Claimant’s name was embedded in webpage addresses or search result "snippets". When clicked, the links redirected visitors to adult content. The domains relied on reverse proxy services to conceal the identity of the person managing them.

The Court found that there was a good arguable case in both harassment and defamation. In relation to defamation, Mrs Justice Hill DBE held that there was a good arguable case that the juxtaposition of the Claimant’s name in the URLs and/or search result snippets with the adult content was defamatory.

Importantly, the Court also accepted that a domain name registrar and/or hosting provider could be sufficiently "mixed up" in the wrongdoing for Norwich Pharmacal relief to be available. Where the website itself is the alleged wrong, the Court found that the range of hosting services required for that website can enable and facilitate the wrongdoing complained of.

The Court was also satisfied that the relevant Defendants were able, or likely to be able, to provide the necessary information or documents, and that granting the order satisfied the overall justice requirement. Among other matters, the Court considered the relief necessary and proportionate and attached limited weight to protecting anonymity where anonymity had been used as a means of avoiding identification.

A separate Norwich Pharmacal application against the First Defendant remains pending and has been transferred to Part 7 because substantial disputes of fact had emerged in the evidence.

The judgment can be found here. The Claimant was represented by Katherine Ratcliffe and David Robertson of Essex Court Chambers, instructed pro bono by Dan Wyatt, Chris Whitehouse and Joseph Toft of RPC.

If you would like advice on Norwich Pharmacal relief, including applications to identify anonymous wrongdoers or obtain information from internet infrastructure providers, please contact Dan Wyatt or Chris Whitehouse.