Acquittal for journalist at Lucerne High Court
Like the first instance, the High Court has acquitted a journalist of the charge of unfair competition. The Lucerne journalist had not provided misleading information in her article about a hotel for sale.
In 2005, the journalist reported in the Neue Luzerner Zeitung on the fate of a panorama hotel in Kriens. After several changes of ownership, the hotel was up for sale again. In the second paragraph after the subheading "Property auctioned", the author wrote that the owner had run out of steam. The person concerned complained that this suggested he was insolvent. He therefore sued for unfair competition and demanded a fine of at least ten daily rates.
In the ruling published on Wednesday, the High Court came to the conclusion that the contested sentence could not be understood in any other way than that the current owner had not been able to run the hotel profitably either. This statement on business success was certainly market-relevant for the company. However, in the overall context, it was clear that the author was not talking about insolvency or bankruptcy. She had also not used the titles manipulatively.
www.sda.ch
In the ruling published on Wednesday, the High Court came to the conclusion that the contested sentence could not be understood in any other way than that the current owner had not been able to run the hotel profitably either. This statement on business success was certainly market-relevant for the company. However, in the overall context, it was clear that the author was not talking about insolvency or bankruptcy. She had also not used the titles manipulatively.
www.sda.ch
