Arbitration clause in IRS binding: Calcutta High Court

Court dismisses ABP's petition challenging the readership data in 2008 for its group publication, Businessworld

BestMediaInfo ureau | Delhi | October 3, 2012

The Calcutta High Court has in a significant judgment delivered on September 25, 2012 held that the arbitration clause embedded in the software of the Indian Readership Survey, which is part of the terms and conditions a user must accept before accessing data, is binding. Disposing of a petition filed by ABP Pvt Ltd and vacating an injunction earlier granted by the court, Justice Nadira Patherya referred the dispute relating to IRS 2008 to arbitration.

ABP had gone to court challenging the readership data for its business magazine, Businessworld, in 2008.Responding to ABP's petition challenging the IRS findings, the Media Research Users' Council (MRUC) had contended that the dispute had to be referred to arbitration, as this clause was a part of the terms accepted by users. This was contested by ABP.

The High Court held: “The issue sought to be raised by the plaintiff in C.S. No.242 of 2008 is covered by the arbitration agreement as the same has been couched in the widest term and encompasses the issue raised, and the same be referred to arbitration.”

MRUC is a body constituted of media research users by media research users for media research users. It succeeds only when it advances the interests of its diverse stakeholders in the communication business. MRUC recognises that there will be situations in which users may disagree with some aspect of the conduct of various researches that it conducts. It is precisely to handle such disputes in a spirit of collaborative resolution that MRUC places so much emphasis on arbitration.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com