Can I Claim Compensation For A Data Breach?

Organisations are bound by the Data Protection Act 2018 (GDPR) to secure your personal data.

This means that they must take preventative measures to ensure unauthorised or unlawful processing of your personal data does not happen. They must also protect against accidental loss (a misplaced laptop containing data) or destruction of, or damage to, your personal data.

If a data breach occurs, under data protection law, you are entitled to file a data breach compensation claim against the organisation.

How can I file a claim for compensation?

The first port of call will be to speak to the organisation that breached your data. The organisation may simply agree to pay you compensation directly. However, in most cases, especially with large-scale breaches, they do not agree to this.

From there, you have the option of taking the claim to court yourself. The courts will ultimately decide if you have a case or not, but due to legal fees, you may be charged a large sum if you are not successful.

This is why the ICO recommends taking legal advice and instructing a firm to take on your case for you. For example, at Barings Law, we will assess the case for you before proceeding and tell you if we believe you have a chance at having a successful claim, if we do, we will take action for you against the organisation. That way there’s no additional stress in your life, and you will not be liable for any legal fees if we are unsuccessful.

I’ve had my data breached, but I’ve not suffered a financial loss. Can I still claim compensation?

You can still file a claim if you have not suffered a financial loss caused by a data breach. GDPR gives you a right to claim compensation if you have suffered damage as a result of a breach. This includes both “material damage” (e.g. you have suffered a financial loss) or “non-material damage” (e.g. you have suffered distress caused by spam calls).

When submitting a claim, it is important to provide as much evidence as you can relating to the breach. You may not want to tell someone that receiving unwanted emails has caused you to experience anxiety, but it is useful information to build your case.

How much compensation will I get?

Unfortunately, this is a complex question. There will be multiple factors taken into account such as the severity of the infringement, looking at both the measures the organisation took to safeguard your data and the impact the breach has had on you, particularly when assessing the distress caused to you.

Depending on the above, the sum could range anywhere from hundreds to thousands of pounds.

How do I instruct the help of a law firm to help me file a data breach claim?

If you have been notified that your data has been breached and want to make a claim for compensation, it’s as simple as clicking the button below to get started.

Our legal data breach experts will assess your case, and after we determine you have a valid claim, we will seek compensation on your behalf. We will always try to settle outside of court, but if the defendant denies liability, we will still fight for you by taking the case to court, all on a no-win no-fee basis.