No Seriousness Threshold For Data Protection Claims — But The Courts Will Reject Speculative Claims

The recent Court of Appeal decision in Farley v Paymaster (t/a Equiniti) has confirmed that there is no seriousness threshold for harm to qualify for compensation in data protection claims. This potentially makes it more difficult for defendants to dispose of low-value claims at an early stage. The decision should not, however, be seen as a gift to claimants: the courts will give short shrift to far-fetched claims of harm that are not "well-founded". Our briefing sets out 3 key takeaways for businesses.

Background

In 2019, Equiniti (the defendant) sent over 750 pension statements containing personal information to out-of-date addresses after a database error. Over 400 members of the Sussex Police pension scheme brought a collective action, seeking damages for injury to feelings and, in some cases, psychiatric injury, stemming from fears of third-party misuse of their personal data — even where there was no proof anyone actually opened and read the mail.