Confidential information—Injunction against disclosure of information—Interim injunction

Confidential information—Injunction against disclosure of information—Interim injunction

British Broadcasting Corporation v HarperCollins Ltd and others [2010] EWHC 2424 (Ch), [2010] All ER (D) 08 (Oct)

Chancery Division, Morgan J, 4 October 2010

In refusing to grant an injunction preventing the actor who played “The Stig” on the well known programme Top Gear from publication of his autobiography and thereby revealing his identity, the court has found that as the information was already in the public domain there was no basis for an injunction based on confidentiality.

Richard Spearman QC and Jonathan Barnes (instructed by Alexis Hawkes, BBC litigation department) for the BBC. Hugh Tomlinson QC and Laura Prince (instructed by Davenport Lyons) for the publishers. Hugh Tomlinson QC and Laura Prince (instructed by Clarke Willmott LLP) for Mr Collins and the service company.

The claimant broadcast a well known and successful television programme called Top Gear. Since 2002, a character called “The Stig” appeared