More Worries About UK Libel Laws Leading To 'Defamation Tourism'

from the this-should-be-fixed dept

For years, we've talked about how the significantly lower barrier to showing libel in the UK (and the higher damages) have resulted in people suing for libel in the UK for online content, even if there's no connection (at all) to the UK. Yes, there have been cases where people outside the UK have sued in the UK over content that was written, published and hosted outside of the UK (and targeted at a non-UK audience) just because of the nature of UK libel laws. Slashdot points out that this is raising concerns of an increasing number of "defamation tourism" cases in the UK, noting that such lawsuits have become "one of the UK's growing export industries." This shouldn't be seen as a good thing.

Filed Under: defamation, defamation tourism, uk