A High Court judge has ruled that thousands of people affected by a major data breach at Capita can continue with their legal action against the outsourcing group, in a decision being described as a landmark for large-scale data privacy claims in the UK.
In a judgment handed down on 9 February, Master Dagnall rejected arguments from Capita’s legal team that solicitors acting for more than 8,000 claimants had abused the court process. Capita had claimed that the use of repetitive or generic descriptions of mental distress following the 2023 cyber attack undermined the validity of the claims.
The ruling allows the case, brought by Barings Law, to proceed and is likely to be closely watched by companies, regulators and claimant law firms involved in data protection litigation.
Barings launched the action in 2023 after a cyber attack exposed the personal data of around 6.6 million individuals, including Capita employees. The compromised information is understood to include sensitive financial and pension details.
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