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ARTICLE · 21 NOVEMBER 2017

How To Manage The Risks Of Mass Data Breaches Under GDPR

Gowling WLG
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For many organisations, the headline news from the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) has been the substantially more significant sanctions that will be imposed for data ...

European UnionPrivacy
Helen Davenport
Helen Davenport
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For many organisations, the headline news from the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) has been the substantially more significant sanctions that will be imposed for data breaches being up to a maximum of either a fine of €20 million or 4% of annual global turnover, whichever is greater.

There has been less focus on the rights of data subjects to bring claims for damages and that claims can be brought against both data controllers and processors.

However, the cumulative value of data subjects' claims for material and non-material damage as a result of an infringement should not be underestimated. Where the number of data subjects affected could be in the thousands, or even millions, even individually relatively small claims for distress will amount to a substantial sum when multiplied by the numbers whose rights have been infringed.

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