(ECJ) Major decision on GDPR compensation rights expected soon3 May 2023 22:59
3rd May 2023 - TheRegister
[Major decision on GDPR compensation rights expected soon]
Could EU residents receive compensation for "non-material" harm caused by illegal data use under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)? We'll find out tomorrow, when the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is set to make a ruling in a case being nervously watched by many a data-hungry company doing business across the political bloc.
Global law firm Linklaters LLP has said that if the ECJ were to "unexpectedly allow individuals to claim compensation for mere breach or upset, that would open the way to class actions on behalf of those individuals that will run into billions of euros."
Peter Church, counsel in the Technology practice at Linklaters LLP, commented: "This is a major decision that could affect businesses right across the EU. If the CJEU suggests individuals have a right to compensation simply for breach of the GDPR or for mere upset, that will unleash a torrent of claims, including class actions with liabilities running into the billions."
He added: "The decision is also being closely watched in the UK. While it will not be binding post-Brexit, it could still be influential and breathe life back into the moribund UK privacy class action market."
Read the very important article for free here:
https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/03/gdpr_compensation_rights/
In my opinion, I don't see Capita be able to save themselves from the general public suing them after potentially getting affected by whatever data Capita 'allowed' because of an error at the hands of an offshore IT worker.
Capita could be liable to pay a fine running into many millions and also having potentially to pay out many millions to the persons who had their private details stolen during that hacking period where Capita wasn't aware they had been hacked.
[Using my Home Legal Insurance Cover] A real life personal event.
I'm preparing to sue EasyJet for myself and another member of my family as our flights bookings along with my bank card, plus our passports details had been stolen between 17th October 2019 and 4th March 2020 and only by the 21st May 2020 they came out to admit it which is many months after they knew it but chose not to say anything for almost three months after. I only knew once they've emailed me confirming that we got our personal data stolen.
As you know, I may be able to claim compensation even if I didn't lose any money as a result of the data breach.
I'm planning to claim a minimum of £3k per person, but I'm aiming for around £6k per person due to the length of time Easyjet took to inform their customers of that affecting hack which makes it even more serious and more damming for Easyjet. Since I'll be assisted by data privacy lawyers put forward by my home legal insurance cover, the payout will be 100% ours as we don't have any legal fees to pay for as long our lawyers don't end costing us more than £100k per case per year which I doubt