Britain's Dyson wins right to make libel claim against Channel 4 News

LONDON: Two of James Dyson's companies won permission from an appeal court on Tuesday to sue Britain's Channel 4 News for libel over a story that alleged abuse at a former supplier's factory in Malaysia.

The British channel's flagship news programme reported in February 2022 that workers at ATA Industrial, a Malaysian company that made Dyson-branded vacuum cleaners, had endured abuse and inhumane conditions.

Dyson Technology Ltd and Dyson Ltd appealed a ruling in October that said the broadcast was not centred on the companies, nor on James Dyson himself, and therefore they could not pursue a libel claim against the broadcaster and Independent Television News, which produces the Channel 4 news programme.

Judge Matthew Nicklin said in the October judgement that the 76-year-old inventor of the bagless cleaner was named and pictured in the report, but the "broadcast was simply not about him" and it did not convey any meaning that was defamatory of him.

He also said the broadcast did not explicitly refer to the two subsidiaries.

However, London's Court of Appeal on Tuesday disagreed.

Judges James Dingemans and Mark Warby said the broadcast "had at least the theme that Dyson was a leading British company which sold products manufactured by ATA in Malaysia whose employees suffered abuse and inhuman working conditions and Dyson should have known what was happening and stopped it".

A Dyson spokesperson said on Tuesday the broadcast had made "false and defamatory allegations against Dyson in connection with ATA, a former third-party contract manufacturer in Malaysia with which Dyson terminated its contract in November 2021".

The spokesperson said the court was clear that the Dyson entities, Dyson Technology Ltd and Dyson Ltd, were identified in the broadcast.

"The case remains at an early stage and will now continue in the High Court," the spokesperson said.

"Dyson will vigorously pursue its action to vindicate its reputation."

Dyson Technology Ltd, Dyson Ltd and a Malaysian subsidiary are separately facing a lawsuit in London from two dozen migrant workers who allege they were subjected to forced labour at the factory in Malaysia.

Dyson argued at a hearing last week that their claims should be heard in Malaysia rather than London.