Apology from Actebis after court threat

Distributor issues full apology to rival ITAC

Distributor Actebis has issued a full apology to rival ITAC, after it was threatened with High Court action by the firm for libel.

ITAC is in the process of countersuing Microsoft for libel after the software giant issued a $7m civil case against it, alleging it had been selling "parallel import" software from the Middle East.

However, two other distributors, Actebis and Gem, had been caught up in the counter libel case, because they forwarded to some of their customers a 'media alert' that Microsoft had originally sent out concerning ITAC. Both cases against the distributors have been dropped.

An ITAC representative said: "We have resolved the issue with Actebis and have also settled our dispute with Gem Distribution."

Roger Mather, managing director of Actebis, said: "We have issued an apology to ITAC for our republication of Microsoft's media alert and the allegations that were made in it."

Microsoft declined to comment.

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