English court allows service via Facebook

As reported in the legal press, on Friday last week the High Court (Mr Justice Teare) granted permission to serve a claim on an individual defendant via Facebook, as the parties involved had been unable to locate him. This comes some three years after an Australian judge permitted service of a default judgment via Facebook (see here) and two years after the English court permitted alternative service of an injunction via Twitter (see here).

The case involves a £1.3 million claim by investment firm AKO Capital against broker TFS Derivatives for alleged overpaid commissions. TFS sought an order for alternative service of the proceedings on its former employee, Fabio de Biase. Under Civil Procedure Rule 6.15, the court can make an order for alternative service where it appears that there is "a good reason to authorise service by a method or at a place not otherwise permitted...". The court has a wide discretion in deciding whether to make an order. According to press reports, and as you would expect, in obtaining the order in this case TFS had to provide sufficient evidence that the Facebook account in question belonged to Mr de Biase (out of the multiple Facebook users of that name) and that the account was active.

The decision confirms that the courts may take a flexible approach in authorising alternative service via relatively novel methods in an appropriate case.