English High Court Awards Damages for Quasi-Defamation Data Claim

The English High Court has recently awarded damages in a data privacy case, with two features of particular interest1. First, the nature of the claim is more reminiscent of a claim in defamation than for data privacy breaches, which is a development in the use of data protection legislation. Secondly, the damages awarded (perhaps influenced by the nature of the case) were unusually high for a data privacy case. In this alert, we look at the background to the case and explore these noteworthy features and other aspects of the case that data controllers should be aware of.