Sorrell settles libel case

WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell has accepted a £120,000 settlement without admission of liability in his High Court privacy and libel actions.

Sorrell accepted agreed damages in settlement of the case against FullSix Spa, Marco Benatti and Marco Tinelli without any admission of liability by the defendants.

Sorrell had accused Italian media company FullSix, its founder Benatti and chief executive Tinelli or orchestrating an internet hate campaign against him in March last year.

WPP Italy executive Daniela Weber accepted £30,000 in settlement of her action for invasion of privacy stemming from the same alleged internet campaign – again without admission of liability.

Sorrell claimed the FullSix executives were behind a blog in which he and Weber were labelled “the mad dwarf and the nympho schizo”. The WPP’s chief’s counsel Desmond Browne QC told the High Court that the two sides had come to terms ten days into the hearing with the defendants yet to give evidence.

An agreed statement said: “FullSix Spa, FullSix SAS, Marco Benatti and Marco Tinelli repeat their acceptance that the allegations complained of in the blogs in the libel action are untrue and that the e-mails which are the subject matter of the privacy action infringe the claimants’ privacy.

“For his part, Sir Martin Sorrell acknowledges that Mr Benatti and Mr Tinelli have given assurances that they were not personally responsible and he is not pursuing his complaint that Mr Benatti or Mr Tinelli were personally responsible.”