Al Saud & Anor v Forbes LLC & Ors
2014
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
- SIR MICHAEL TUGENDHAT
Areas of Law
- Media Law
- Defamation Law
2014
QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case revolves around a libel action brought by a Saudi Royal Family member and his company against Forbes magazine. The court addressed whether articles published by Forbes contained defamatory statements about the Claimants. The court found that the articles bore defamatory meanings regarding the First Claimant but did not meet the threshold of seriousness for the Second Claimant. The key legal principles applied include reasonableness in determining defamatory meaning, the threshold of seriousness, and the right of a claimant to select specific allegations for complaint.
Judgment
Sir Michael Tugendhat:
This is the trial of a preliminary issue in a libel action. The issue is the meaning of the words complained of. There are four publications complained of, although the first and fourth are so similar that no separate issue arises in respect of them.
The First Claimant
The First Claimant is a member of the Royal Family of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and unquestionably one of the richest men in the world. Much of his wealth is in the form of shares in the Second Claimant. That is a company incorporated under the laws of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is publicly listed on the Tadawul (the Saudi Arabian stock exchange) but not within this jurisdiction. The First Claimant owns 95% of the issued shares in the Second Claimant.
The Second Claimant
The Second Claimant owns, amongst other assets, the shares in a number of companies listed on the New York and other stock exchanges. The most valuable of these was, from the date of the Second Claimant’s initial public offering in 2007, a holding worth some $9.2 billion in Citigroup. The Second Defendant does not publish a list of its assets, and is under no obligation to do so. Other shareholdings specifically identified in the first and third articles include shares in American companies. No British companies are referred to.
The Defendants
The First Defendant publishes the hard copy version of Forbes magazine, a fortnightly magazine covering business and financial topics. The Second Defendant publishes on the Forbes website and through a digital application for use on portable devices. The Third Defendant is the author of the first, third and fourth publications complained of. She covers the world’s wealthiest people and edits Forbes’ Billionaire List (‘the List’). That List is published each year in the spring. It gives the names and a figure for the net worth of each of a number of billionaires from all around the world, with special prominence being given to the top twenty by net worth. The Fourth Defendant is the author of the second publication complained of. She covers the accounting industry and accounting issues for investors. Readers of the Defendants’ publications are individuals who are familiar with business matters. For the purposes of this litigation the only readers who are relevant are those within England and Wales.
The words complained of
The articles containing the words complained of were published as follows:
Online dated 5 March 2013 under the headin