Legal Case Summary
Exchange Telegraph Co v Gregory & Co [1896] 1 QB 147
Tort – Procuring breach of contract – Injunction – Right of Property in Unpublished Information
Facts
Exchange Telegraph (ET) was a news agency that sent telegraph messages. It transmitted the latest stock exchange updates, had them typed up and made into a newspaper. It contracted subscribers to sell the newspaper. G&C obtained the telegraph tapes and posted it publicly. The company threatened to continue to print and multiply copies of the copyright information, obtain copies and induce subscribers of ET to break their contracts by supplying G&C with the information. An injunction was granted and G&C appealed.
Issues
Whether there was an infringement on ET’s copyright in the newspaper and whether injury was caused the ET by G&C.
Decision / Outcome
Allowing the appeal, ET had a right of property at common law in the information, and were entitled to an injunction to restrain G&C from infringing that right by continuing to publish it. G&C knew, based on the terms of their contract with ET, that the information had a monetary value to his business as a broker. He used the information he obtained by means of probable bribery to entice people to go into his office and deal with him. G&C persuaded the employed subscriber to break his contract with the plaintiffs, and thus, committed a gross breach of faith and did cause injury to ET. The information was deemed to have a value which could be sold and could be considered personal property owned by ET. G&C were found to have intentionally invaded ET’s right of property, caused injury to ET and therefore acted as an unlawful interference to a contract.
Updated 19 March 2026
This article summarises the nineteenth-century case of Exchange Telegraph Co v Gregory & Co [1896] 1 QB 147, and the legal principles it describes remain historically accurate as a statement of what the Court of Appeal decided at the time.
Readers should be aware of some important contextual points. The tort of inducing breach of contract (formerly called ‘procuring breach of contract’) has developed substantially since 1896. The modern leading authority is the House of Lords decision in OBG Ltd v Allan [2007] UKHL 21, which clarified and restated the economic torts, including the distinction between inducing breach of contract and causing loss by unlawful means. Students should treat Exchange Telegraph v Gregory as foundational background rather than a current statement of the law in this area.
The article’s reference to a ‘right of property at common law in information’ also requires care. English law does not generally recognise a freestanding property right in information: see Oxford v Moss (1979) 68 Cr App R 183 and academic commentary following OBG. The protection afforded to ET in this case is better understood through the lens of contract and the economic torts rather than as recognition of information as property in a modern sense. Copyright law has also been comprehensively restated by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, which now governs copyright in the UK.
The case remains relevant as part of the historical development of the economic torts and for introductory discussion of the protection of commercially valuable information, but students should consult up-to-date sources on the current law.
