Accountancy outsourcing firm AdvanceTrack has agreed a settlement agreement with GI Outsourcing following a High Court decision
The High Court ruled that GI Outsourcing had infringed AdvanceTrack’s name and branding in an online campaign using Google advertisement campaign in 2021, which was put together by a marketing agency for GI.
AdvanceTrack was claiming £500,000 in damages but has now reached a settlement agreement with GI Outsourcing for ‘a small fraction of the original claim’. The court has made an order giving effect to the terms of settlement and the proceedings have now concluded.
The issue stemmed from an error by a third-party marketing agency, which the Court acknowledged was accidental and caused no commercial gain to GI Outsourcing and no substantial loss to AdvanceTrack.
Vipul Sheth, MD of AdvanceTrack, said: ‘Earlier this year, we won our landmark case in the High Court, in what was a victory for integrity – protecting our brand, our competitors’ brands, and the wider industry.
‘We attended the High Court again last week to agree a settlement following the court’s decision. We will comment further once the order is sealed and the court order made official.’
In a statement, GI Outsourcing said it had ‘acted quickly to remove the adverts at the time. We went to great lengths to resolve the matter appropriately, offering the other party a settlement in August 2022 and again in January of this year.
‘The matter stemmed from an error by a third-party marketing agency, which the Court has acknowledged was accidental and caused no commercial gain to GI Outsourcing and no substantial loss to AdvanceTrack.
‘The January settlement offer has only now been accepted. Having run the case through to trial, AdvanceTrack ultimately had to accept that our offer was more generous than the result they would have obtained in court.’
Sheth added: ‘This was a six-figure risk, but it was crucial to protect our brand, our competitors’ brands, and the wider industry. This wasn’t ever about the money, it was about holding our industry to higher standards.’
AdvanceTrack has to pay GI Outsourcing’s legal fees accrued since the settlement offer was made 11 months ago.