ICO investigations – latest news and fines

As the authority that monitors the application of the GDPR in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office investigates many of the data breaches that are reported to it each year. As far as the Virgin Media data breach is concerned, the ICO investigations are looking to lead to no fine being issued, but people can still make a claim for compensation.

The ICO has the power to impose huge fines on companies who have provoked data breaches through their own negligence of GDPR requirements. Many large corporations have felt the force of these penalties in recent years. However, data breach victims see nothing of these monies, and any fines are separate to legal actions for damages. As such, we launch data breach claims to bring compensation to the victims.

If you were affected by the Virgin Media data breach and wish to recover compensation, sign up and register your claim today. Even where no fine is issued at all, this does not mean the company is not liable. There are many reasons as to why fines may not be issued, and you can still be eligible to claim compensation. We are confident we can win the legal action that we have launched.

ICO investigations’ latest penalties

In some cases, ICO investigations conclude with recommendations to the company under review, judging that the concerns may not require a fine. Such was the case for the recent investigation of Experian, which found that the company needed to make “fundamental changes” to its handling of customer data. However, where a serious data breach has occurred, the ICO can choose to impose a monetary penalty, with fines sometimes reaching tens of millions of pounds.

For example, some ICO investigations’ latest penalties have affected the following companies:

• Ticketmaster was fined £1.25m for failing to protect customers’ payment details;
• Marriott was fined £18.4m for failing to secure the personal data of millions of customers;
• British Airways was fined £20m for failing to protect the personal and financial data of 400,000 customers.

The ICO and compensation claims

Although the ICO is in charge of fines, they usually play no part in the execution of compensation claims.

Data breach claims are led privately by law firms and can help to impose further punishment on a company on behalf of the claimants. ICO fines may not quite as severe as they could be, as was the case for the British Airways data breach, where the ICO originally intended to fine as much as £183m before lessening the penalty.

The work of data breach lawyers like us is, therefore, vital in bringing justice to victims. We have launched legal actions against many organisations fined and not fined by the ICO, including Ticketmaster, British Airways, Marriott, and Virgin Media. In a compensation claim, you can recover compensation to cover both the distress you have suffered, as well as any financial losses and expenses incurred.

Claim in the Virgin Media group action

If you were affected by the Virgin Media data breach, now is the time to fight for your rights under the GDPR.

You can still make a claim even where an ICO fine is not issued, and our No Win, No Fee group action is established for Virgin Media victims to pursue their cases.

We were quick to take on claimants after the data breach, and the clients in our group action are now in their thousands. For all eligible claimants, many could be entitled to thousands of pounds in compensation.

Use our simple sign-up form to join now so that we can get your claim underway.

The content of this post/page was considered accurate at the time of the original posting and/or at the time of any posted revision. The content of this page may, therefore, be out of date. The information contained within this page does not constitute legal advice. Any reliance you place on the information contained within this page is done so at your own risk.