Thread by @theDPOdaily

Last week, I posted about the Niebel case, highlighting Judge Warren’s scepticism about the harm caused by spam, and I wondered what this might mean about the current fad for data compensation claims. This week, I received a concrete example. (1/8)

In pursuit of unpaid school fees, a law firm employee emailed the Rolfe family, but alas, the sender got one letter wrong in the email address, resulting in the email being sent to someone else. The someone else was contacted and deleted the email. (2/8)

Claiming the incident caused sleepless nights and made them feel ill, the Rolfes (both parents and daughter) sued the firm for “misuse of confidential information, breach of confidence, negligence, damages under s82 of the GDPR and s169 Data Protection Act 2013”. (3/8)

The court was unimpressed. This is a summary judgement, with the Rolfe family’s claims dismissed as implausible. “What harm has been done, arguably?” asks the judge, before describing their arguments as “plainly exaggerated”. (4/8)

The Rolfes have to make an interim payment of £11,000 to cover costs, with more possibly to come. The only positive for them is that they can appeal the decision up to 21 days after Google vs Lloyd is handed down, in case it is of any assistance to them. (5/8)

Many such claims are settled to avoid high legal bills, but this brisk, no-nonsense decision shows what happens when hyped-up distress meets legal reality. The defendants also took the sensible precaution of getting a very good lawyer. (6/8)

I’m not an objective observer: I think most of these ‘loss of control’ claims are nonsense and I’m not sorry that the Rolfes got a slap-down. But as we await Google vs Lloyd, it’s another setback for the ambulance chasers after the recent failure of action against Dixons. (7/8)

I don’t know who made it and I don’t know if you’ve spotted it, but the fact that there is a single-digit mistake in the judgement that doesn’t really do any harm is amusingly symmetrical. Read it here: bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/… (8/8)