GDPR breaches and compensation claims

Introduced in 2018 in the UK, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) has updated data protection law and the rights of those affected by data breaches. Applying to all businesses and organisations that hold personal information, the GDPR demonstrates the steps these parties must take to ensure data is protected. For data breaches, the law can enable them to claim compensation if they have been affected by GDPR breaches.

Although the GDPR has been in place for around three years now, many data controllers still fail to show enough recognition for their legal obligations. Towards the end of 2019, some reports suggested that approximately half of UK businesses were still not fully GDPR compliant yet, and it is unclear how much progress has been made.

In many cases, data breach incidents reveal a potential culture of negligence towards data protection within some businesses, highlighting the actions they failed to take to keep personal data secure. We believe that this is the case for the Virgin Media data breach, in which 900,000 UK consumers were affected by the exposure of their personal data. If more protections had been in place, the incident could potentially have been avoided, which is why all those affected could be entitled to claim compensation for the harm caused.

What constitutes a breach of the GDPR?

On its website, the Information Commissioner’s Office, the data protection regulator in the UK, defines a personal data breach as “a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data”. Data breaches can, therefore, come in several different forms, but establishing whether an organisation has breached the law can be slightly different.

The GDPR has several key principles that data controllers must adhere to in order to remain compliant. If it emerges that a data breach has occurred due to the negligence of a third-party data controller, they may be liable to pay compensation to the victims.

GDPR breaches and data breach claims

Under the GDPR, victims can be allowed to claim compensation for any harm they have suffered due to GDPR breaches. Beyond claiming for your involvement in a data breach, you may also be able to recover compensation for any distress you may have suffered as a consequence, or for any financial losses or expenses that have resulted from the breach. This is because the GDPR can allow victims to claim for both the “material” and “non-material” damage caused by a data breach.

Make your Virgin Media claim

GDPR breaches should not be taken lightly, and to us it is vital that data breach victims have a chance to stand up and assert their rights. By offering No Win, No Fee representation to eligible Virgin Media victims, we are ensuring that as many people as possible can access the justice they deserve.

As leading lawyers in data breach claims and group actions, Your Lawyers has been involved in a number of high-profile cases of GDPR breaches, including the ongoing litigation against British Airways. Having represented victims for privacy matters since 2014, we have the expertise and insight to bring Virgin Media data breach claims to fruition.

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