Serious Harm
The threshold in s.1 Defamation Act 2013: a statement is not defamatory unless its publication has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to the claimant's reputation. For trading bodies, serious harm means serious financial loss.
Independent editorial summary — not the official statute text. Read the official version on legislation.gov.uk.
Section 1 of the Defamation Act 2013 provides that a statement is not defamatory unless its publication has caused, or is likely to cause, serious harm to the reputation of the claimant. This raised the threshold for a claim to succeed beyond the previous common law position, requiring evidence of actual or likely serious reputational harm rather than a merely defamatory tendency.
For a body that trades for profit, the Act sets a stricter test: harm to its reputation is not 'serious harm' unless it has caused, or is likely to cause, the body serious financial loss. This reflects Parliament's intent to prevent well-resourced companies from using defamation claims to stifle criticism absent real commercial harm.
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Official sources
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