Modest Data Breach Not A Matter For The High Court

Johnson v Eastlight Community Homes Limited [2021] EWHC 3069 (QB)

In yet another recent High Court decision dealing with a relatively modest data breach the Court has struck out elements of a claim and transferred it to the County Court.

The claimant had issued proceedings in the High Court seeking damages limited to £3,000 in a claim for misuse of private information, breach of confidence, negligence, breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights/the Human Rights Act 1998 and breach of the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.  The claimant also sought an injunction and declaration. 

This is a familiar cocktail of demands/claims to those who face attritional claims in connection with relatively minor incidents. Whilst there are a number of claimant firms in this space, this particular claim was pursued by Pure Legal (who have historically specialised in this type of claim but have recently gone into administration).