WER v REW was an anonymised legal case in which Chris Hutcheson, represented by Hugh Tomlinson QC, of Schillings,[1] took out an injunction to prevent Popdog Ltd from publishing details regarding his private life,[2] and was heard before Justice Sir Charles Grey in January 2009.
[6] The following year, however, News Group Newspapers, wishing to publish the original material in The Sun, applied to have the 2009 injunction set aside.
[10][14] In their judgement, the Appeal Court upheld Eady's ruling, saying that, just because information was related to private life, "it did not necessarily follow that there was a reasonable expectation of privacy.
[10] The case is one of several so-called superinjunctions dealing with the English common law position in relation to privacy and social media.
[18] The Guardian described the outcome of the case as "a further setback to the power of privacy orders to restrict reporting", coming as it did the day after Ryan Giggs was named in Parliament as also having brought a similar injunction over allegations of an affair.