Morrisons Ruling Leaves Door Open For Data Breach Suits

Mark Young spoke with Law360 about a UK Supreme Court case involving the intentional breach of customer data information by an employee at Morrisons. The court ruled Morrisons will no longer  have to pay a fine. Mr. Young says this is the “dual-edged result” of the Supreme Court judgment. Although a company is off the hook if an employee “goes off the deep end” and carries out an illegal act designed to harm the employer, the ruling reinforced that employers can be held vicariously liable for employees who do something closely connected with what they are authorized to do, he adds. That includes accidents such as sending data to the wrong recipient or uploading data to a public rather than private site.