Dyson firms in Court of Appeal bid over dismissed libel claim

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Two Dyson companies are to challenge the dismissal of a libel claim against Channel 4 over a broadcast which alleged the exploitation of factory workers at the Court of Appeal.

Billionaire Sir James Dyson sued the broadcaster and Independent Television News (ITN) over a broadcast of Channel 4’s news programme on February 10, 2022.

At a hearing last October, the High Court heard the programme reported on legal action brought against the vacuum cleaning giant by several workers at a Malaysian factory, which previously supplied products to Dyson.

The broadcast was estimated to have been seen by millions of viewers, and featured interviews with workers at ATA Industrial, who said they faced abuse and “inhuman conditions” while at the factory, which manufactured vacuum cleaners and air filters.

Sir James claimed the broadcast falsely said he and companies Dyson Technology and Dyson Limited were complicit in systematic abuse and exploitation of the workers.

However, Mr Justice Nicklin found that while Sir James was named and pictured in the programme, the entrepreneur was not defamed, and his claim was dismissed.

In a judgment on October 31 2022, he said: “Only a reader that was hopelessly naive about the way in which global companies like Dyson operate could consider that a single person, its founder, had day-to-day management responsibility for what happened in a manufacturing plant that supplied its products.”

Mr Justice Nicklin had also been asked to decide whether the two companies were referred to in the broadcast, adding “it may be possible for Dyson to put forward a revised claim on behalf of the current corporate claimants, or for claims to be brought by other companies in the Dyson group”.

The two companies are now due to appeal against the decision at the Court of Appeal in London.

The hearing before Lord Justice Dingemans, Lord Justice Birss and Lord Justice Warby is due to begin after 10.30am on Tuesday.