Holiday rentals agency Travelopo has said it was right to speak out about rival operator Villa Parade after a High Court injunction against it was lifted.
The original injunction demanded Travelopo retract written warnings it sent to customers of Villa Parade about the validity of their bookings.
Travelopo said it felt compelled to act after it was alerted by villa owners that they had not been paid by Villa Parade for over a year and some properties were triple booked for this summer.
Villa Parade took legal action and was granted the injunction on May 2. In the aftermath of that Villa Parade ceased trading on May 14 owing customer more than £3 million having sought to downplay the scale of the issues it was facing.
Following the withdrawal of the injunction Travelopo managing director, Roger Fenton, said he stood by the email his company sent warning customer of Villa Parade their holidays might be in jeopardy.
The firm added the withdrawal of the injunction and demise of Villa Parade has vindicated the company’s action and Travelopo says it will seek to recover the “significant costs” it incurred in fighting the injunction.
Roger Fenton said: “I am relieved that the injunction has been lifted and it is now clear to all that we were right to warn Villa Parade’s customers.
“However, this fiasco has had a terrible effect on all involved. My company has been left with significant legal costs incurred trying to defend ourselves when we were right to act as we did.
“And for the customers and villa owners who were previously dealing with Villa Parade – who have lost money and are missing out on holidays – the conduct of Villa Parade and its solicitors has made a stressful situation even worse.
“We are working with those customers and villa owners to try and salvage this summer’s holidays as much as we can and I am pleased that my company can now put the worry of this spurious injunction behind us.”