Monzo in the Media 📰

So emotive that the person in the video has done their makeup in a way that makes it look like they’ve been crying.

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She will be posting a video sponsored by Chase next saying how amazing they are and that everyone should sign up :rofl:

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IANAL , but isn’t calling Monzo a scam a clear cut case of libel?

IMO Monzo should look to protect their reputation and move to take it down at the very least.

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Hopefully nobody is telling her to stand in the corner of a brick building in a forest.

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I would agree - but there was an instance on this forum (can’t find it now) where someone had their account blocked, and someone from Monzo saw the thread, looked into the case, and it turned out Monzo had got it wrong and reversed the decision. Which suggests that there might be some kind of subjectivity over these cases, as well as human error.

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Possibly actually. I just tried to search for it, but couldn’t find it anywhere.

IANAL, but my understanding is this would only clearly be libel if she knows it’s not true. If she has a sincerely held belief that she’s speaking the truth, she’s entitled to her beliefs.

That’s one reason why libel cases are so hard to bring to court and win.

Anyone else swimming through drivel this morning hoping to find a Google investment announcement? :face_with_monocle:

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When I saw 18 unread messages in ‘Monzo in the media’, I felt absolutely sure the announcement had dropped :joy: Most disappointing

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Just to clarify though there’s two slightly different things here because the girl in the video is saying Monzo can take your money.

Accounts can get frozen for a number of reasons and some of these will definitely be erroneous. As far as I know though, the final decision not to return money to someone can only be made by a court order sought by the NCA. So if someone is saying ‘Monzo closed my account AND kept all my money’, this is not going to be a Monzo error.

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Having dealt with liable through solicitors (we contested and won) before yes calling it a scam without being able to prove its a scam (its clearly not) is highly likely liable. In the UK, unlike USA the person making the claim has to prove the claim is true where as in the USA monzo would need to prove its not true.

She needs to be able to prove its a scam to avoid liable, she could have phrased things better and avoided it though potentially if she had appended it with “the way monzo treated me makes me think of it like a scam” but instead she directly calls it a scam.
Its worse on the internet as companies can directly see your reach to really rack up the potential reputational damage and the costs defending are very very prohibitive which is why most come to a settlement when its so clear cut.

If I recall in theory if you say a liable statement in England in public and one person hears it you are still liable but the damages will be less, the solicitor fees wont be though but with a huge amount seeing it the damages are not in your favour.

As a rule I would always avoid using scam sort of language describing companies unless you can back it up. Opinions are generally fine but declarative statements such as “scam” or calling someone a racist (twitter…) can end up in trouble.

Companies do go after these sorts of claims (in certain industries its far far too common to be honest) and the person usually pays them an agreed payment for damages and removes the claim as well as possibly posting a retort about how they were wrong, it depends but its usually pretty clear cut liable.
In Scotland things can be even worse as its different further in here.

I dont expect Monzo to go liable though or banks in general as it can cause the Streisand effect and cause far more reputational damage then the original comments but that doesnt mean they couldnt.

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And they all seem to be under the impression that Monzo is renowned for being crypto friendly.

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Depends.

There’s a defence of truth, in which case you’d need to prove it was a scam.

There’s also a defence of honest opinion in which case you’d need to show that a reasonable person would come to that opinion given the same set of circumstances.

There are about half a dozen other potential defences available.

At the end of the day it’s very expensive to bring libel cases, though the threat of one might concentrate people’s minds.

There’s also the Barbara Streisand effect to consider.

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Yeah that applies to both parties, many many people cave when the letter comes through.

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Just FYI both of those are behind a paywall so we can’t read (though we have the announcement thread).

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I was able to read these earlier without a paywall - no idea why. I think the only ‘new’ information was that Monzo are looking to push their US expansion and are likely going to do the same in Europe. There was a comment from TS about being open to acquiring smaller companies as well.

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I’m paywalled as well now, but I think he said companies has approached Monzo looking to be acquired by Monzo! Coughfreetradecoughlunarcoughcough

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In relation to this, might be worth mentioning that FT provides free access to secondary school staff and 16-19 year old students, and university staff and students can often access via their university library membership.

Obviously that doesn’t help everyone, but might help some.

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