Jaroslaw Wisniewski v Express VPN at Kape Technologies plc (First Respondent) Kape Technologies (Second Respondent) Kape Technologies plc (Third Respondent) — 2023

At a preliminary hearing, Employment Judge Lumby removed the original named respondents because the first and second were not legal entities, and the third respondent was not the correct party. The tribunal substituted Network Guard Pte. Ltd as the respondent after finding that ExpressVPN was a brand owned by that company, and that the recruitment process for the Polish-language content strategist/copywriter role was being carried out on behalf of the ExpressVPN/Kape group by Ms Dziewialtowska-Gintowt and Ms Lenehan acting as agents or employees for that group.

The claimant had applied for the role in 2023, attended an online interview on 25 January 2023, and later complained about not being taken forward and not receiving written feedback. He brought claims of age, disability, religion or belief, and sex discrimination, together with a breach of contract claim. The tribunal found that the breach of contract claim could not proceed because the claimant was not an employee, so the Employment Tribunal lacked jurisdiction to hear it.

The discrimination claims were also dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Applying the territorial scope cases, including Lawson v Serco, Duncombe, and the sufficiently strong connection approach in Ravat and Bates van Winkelhof, the tribunal concluded that the relevant connections were not strong enough to bring the claims within British employment and equality law. Although Kape Technologies PLC had its headquarters in London and the claimant wanted to work from London, the tribunal found the role was aimed at the Polish market, the recruitment process and alleged discrimination took place in Poland, the initial contact came from Romania, and the stronger territorial pull was to Poland. As a result, all claims were dismissed and no remedy was awarded.