Another Decision Showing What Parties Can – And Cannot – Do When They Receive A Draft Judgment Under Embargo

In a recent decision, the High Court found that there was a clear breach of the embargo on a draft judgment where the defendant disclosed the outcome to journalists on confidential terms and subject to an agreement that they would not publish anything until after formal hand down. However, it was not a breach to disclose the decision to a number of employees who needed to know the result in order to prepare a press release and customer video ready for hand down, or to assess technical and design changes that might need to be made to the defendant's service in light of the judgment: Match Group LLC v Muzmatch Ltd [2022] EWHC 1023 (IPEC).

This is the most recent in a run of decisions in which the courts have considered what is, or is not, permitted under the embargo. The decision is not surprising in confirming that disclosure to external parties (such as the journalists in this case) will be a breach, even if accompanied by instructions to keep the information