Updated: Is Sethi/Arrington Legal Judgement a Threat to TechCrunch Europe?

So the TechCrunch/Arrington/Sam Sethi saga has a new twist with a summary judgement against TechCrunch in a UK court because as they put it “we declined to participate” a decision I can totally understand. Dennis Howlett over on ZDnet has a good explanation of what this could mean for Arrington and TechCrunch and indeed Arrington has responded in that post indicating his reasons for not participating (legal costs) and has cancelled a planned trip to FOWA because of potential for problems. All of this is a bit of a shame really as Mike is actually a great speaker and an enthusiast for startups despite what his detractors say.

One question that no-one has brought up though is how this might affect TechCrunch Europe, that part of TechCrunch which operates (mainly) out of London. If costs (allegedly up to £50,000) and damages (allegedly as much as £80,000 according to the complaint) are awarded to Sam Sethi, does that have implications for the UK operation? Could assets be seized or operations shut down in lieu of payment?

I have no idea how the operation is set-up or what bearing it has on jurisdiction. The site is located at http://uk.techcrunch.com and so is a subdomain of TechCrunch which may mean there is no problem. But it seems to operate largely independently of the TechCrunch mother ship and I’m not sure if it has UK bank accounts etc. but would imagine it does. I am also not a legal expert obviously but it would definitely be of concern to me if I were Mike Butcher the Editor there or otherwise involved in the operation.

While it’s by no means perfect (but then who is) it would be a real shame to see the TechCrunch Europe (it used to be UK but it was recently rebranded) part of the TechCrunch operation put out of business over this.

Anyone out there have any legal knowledge that might enlighten? Or perhaps Mike himself can put this one to bed.

Update: Since I published this I’ve received a one word response from Sam via twitter saying “no”. By which I assume he means It’s not going to be a problem for TechCrunch Europe. Something I’m glad to hear.

Update 2: I asked Sam directly whether he’d ever go after TC Europe as part of TechCrunch who are a co-defendant on the Lawsuit. Sam clarified again saying, that he has no intention of doing any such thing at the moment but the ball is very much in Arrington’s court and depending on what happens now he added “sadly I can never say never”.

Update 3: It seems that Techcrunch don’t have any assets in the UK at all. “No Leases offices or bank accounts” according to their lawyers (hat-tip to @madciapka for pointing it out) in the original response to the lawsuit. So this may not be an issue at all if that’s the case. Hope it is.