Green hit with £3m costs as he drops legal case
SIR Philip Green faces a £3million legal bill after his bid to gag the media from revealing more allegations of sexual and racist abuse was ended by the High Court yesterday.
The Topshop boss, 66, had taken legal action to stop a newspaper publishing misconduct accusations by five employees.
But he said the action was now “pointless” after he was named in Parliament as the businessman behind the injunction.
In a ruling, Mr Justice Warby granted him permission to discontinue the proceedings but he was also ordered to pay the “bulk” of the newspaper’s costs.
The same day several recordings of phone conversations Sir Philip made to the paper were released.
Bullying
He can be heard discussing the Daily Telegraph’s intent to print a story based on his use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to silence and pay off alleged victims.
During a series of heated and expletive-ridden calls made last July, Sir Philip threatened to “bankrupt” the publication if it printed the allegations.
He said he would take “pleasure” in personally bankrupting the editor Chris Evans and warned reporters that he did not want “an ugly punch-up”.
Sir Philip avoided answering direct questions about his alleged bullying behaviour by saying that he “didn’t just get born yesterday” and that “God loves a trier”. He was said to have repeatedly made derogatory and sexist comments to the reporters while asking for more time to respond to the proposed article. It transpired that he used the extra time to employ lawyers to apply for a gagging order on the newspaper.
In a statement issued after the ruling, the retail mogul reissued his threat to the signatories of the NDAs by reminding them that they are under “ongoing obligations” to honour the agreements.
He added: “The Telegraph and its owners must now decide whether to do the decent thing and respect the NDAs. If not, they will expose their sources to potential further legal actions and significant losses. Their fate is now in the Telegraph’s hands.” NDAs in business are commonly used to protect matters of commercial confidentiality, however there are concerns they are being used to cover up abuse.
The newspaper said an investigation into Sir Philip was launched in the wake of the Hollywood sex scandal and the allegations surrounding disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
The action launched by Sir Philip and his lawyers last summer was initially dismissed by the court, but a challenge was mounted.
The Court of Appeal judges temporarily barred the newspaper from identifying the tycoon in October.
But the newspaper responded with a front-page story about an anonymous prominent British businessman’s alleged mistreatment of women and ethnic minorities and misuse of NDAs.
Silence
Former Cabinet minister Lord Hain named him in the Lords the following day under parliamentary privilege.
Lord Hain said last night: “The Government must reform the law. It is entirely wrong to use NDAs to conceal abuse of victims by powerful or rich individuals.
“That is deploying gagging orders to enforce injustice and the abuse of human rights of ordinary citizens who don’t have the money to fight back.”
Minister for Women and Equalities Penny Mordaunt yesterday promised to take necessary steps to stop unacceptable use of NDAs to “hide workplace harassment or intimidate victims into silence”.
Sir Philip had previously denied allegations of sexual harassment. He has also denied any racism.