Background facts
3.NGRS is a trade body which promotes the interests of those trading in the removal and storage industry. Such traders may obtain membership of NGRS for a fee and among the benefits of membership is the entitlement to advertise that the trader is a member of NGRS. 4.The Third Defendant (“ALS”) conducts a removals business. The First Defendant (“Mr Luckes”) and the Second Defendant (“Mrs Luckes”) are husband and wife and the directors and shareholders of ALS. 5.ALS was a member of NGRS from 2006 until June 2009. It had a website which referred to its membership of NGRS (“the ALS Website”). It also had entries in online trade directories used by the public to obtain quotes. One was a listing at www.reallymoving.com (“the Reallymoving Website”) which stated that ALS was a member of NGRS. 6.All references to ALS’s membership should have been deleted after the membership ended in June 2009. In November 2009 NGRS noticed that this had not happened. ALS agreed to remedy the position and a settlement was reached in January 2010. 7.In March 2013 NGRS saw that the ALS Website and the listing on the Reallymoving Website still contained references to NGRS. A letter of complaint was sent on 12 April 2013. The references were removed by 17 April 2013 and have since remained deleted. 8.NGRS issued a claim form on 13 June 2013 in the Patents County Court. By an order dated 7 May 2015 the action was transferred to the IPEC Small Claims Track. The trial was heard by District Judge Hart on 4 February 2016.