Court of Appeal holds that mass data breach claim against Google can proceed as a representative action

02/10/19

The Court of Appeal (Dame Victoria Sharp, President of the Queen’s Bench Division, Sir Geoffrey Vos, Chancellor of the High Court, and Lord Justice Davis) have handed down judgment in Lloyd v Google.  Mr Lloyd seeks to represent a class of more than 4 million iPhone users, whose internet browsing Google secretly tracked under the “Safari Workaround”.   Reversing the decision of Warby J, the Court of Appeal unanimously held that:

1. A claimant can recover damages for loss of control of their data under section 13 of the Data Protection Act 1998, without proving pecuniary loss or distress; 
2. The members of the class that Mr Lloyd seeks to represent have the same interest as one another under Part 19.6(1) CPR and are identifiable; and
3. The Judge ought to have exercised his discretion to allow the action to proceed as a representative action.

Subject to any grant of permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, the claim will now be served out of the jurisdiction on Google and proceed to trial.

The judgment is here.