No damages for Loss of Control of Data
The respondent has issued a claim alleging that the appellant (‘Google’) has breached its duties as a data controller under the DPA to over 4m Apple iPhone users during a period of some months in 2011- 2012, when Google was able to collect and use their browser generated information. The respondent sued on his own behalf and on behalf of a class of other residents in England and Wales whose data was collected in this way. He applied for permission to serve the claim out of the jurisdiction. Google opposed the application on the grounds that (i) the pleaded facts did not disclose any basis for claiming compensation under the DPA and (ii) the court should not in any event permit the claim to continue as a representative action.
Whether the respondent should have been refused permission to serve his representative claim against the appellant out of the jurisdiction (i) because members of the class had not suffered ‘damage’ within the meaning of section 13 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (‘DPA’); and/or (ii) the respondent was not entitled to bring a representative claim because other members of the class did not have the ‘same interest’ in the claim and were not identifiable; and/or (iii) because the court should exercise its discretion to direct that the respondent should not act as a representative.
Lord Reed P, Lady Arden, Lord Sales, Lord Leggatt, Lord Burrows
UKSC 2019/0213, [2021] UKSC 50, [2021] 3 WLR 1268
Bailii, Pailii Press Summary, Bailii Issues and Facts
Data Protection Act 1998, Civil Procedure Rules 19.6
England and Wales
Information, Jurisdiction, Litigation Practice
Updated: 04 December 2021; Ref: scu.669785