A groundbreaking proceeding has been filed in the Supreme Court alleging that Google has illegally tracked millions of iPhone users.
The proceedings are not about the claim itself, but about whether the claimant is Richard Lloyd, a former director of the Consumer Rights Group. -You can bring it on behalf of the affected people.
The ruling is not expected for weeks, but two days of debate will be heard.
If the case is allowed to proceed, many others may follow suit.
Lloyd said that between 2011 and 2012, Google cookies would provide health, race, ethnicity, gender, and financial data via Apple’s Safari web browser, even if the user chose a “non-tracking” privacy setting. Claimed to have collected.
The proceedings aimed to obtain compensation for the 4.4 million affected users.
Case law
This was the first incident in the UK. Class action proceedings (one proceeding on behalf of many) are common in the United States, but in the United Kingdom they can only be filed on an opt-in basis. In other words, everyone involved needs to agree.
So, for example, a long-term proceeding over British Airways data breaches is still in the process of gathering stakeholders.
Google’s proceedings are a test of whether a single individual can take such action without the need for people to actively opt in, which should speed up such legal action. ..
A similar case for TikTok, Recently launched by a former children commissioner On behalf of millions of young people in the EU and UK. It can only proceed if the Google case ruling is in favor of such a class action proceeding.
Google case
Initially, Google’s proceedings were dismissed by the High Court, which ruled that it was difficult to calculate the number of people affected and whether they were harmed as a result of the breach.
However, the Court of Appeals later ruled that the case filed by Mr. Lloyd was a good way for people to seek massive relief for data breaches.
Google has appealed the decision and the case has reached the Supreme Court. There, TechUK is one of several groups that want it to be rejected.
Google’s leading group, in particular, claims that it could open locks for large-scale proceedings and cause serious damage to small businesses that may face significant penalties.
Antony Walker, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of TechUK, said: “This greatly increases the responsibility of those who provide data-driven services in the UK, which makes up the majority of the digital economy.
Plaintiff Richard Lloyd said he hopes the proceedings “can establish a form of fair remedy for data misuse that does not currently exist in the country.”
“It’s about giving millions of consumers access to justice when their rights are abused by global tech giants.”
Julian Koopman, a partner at law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, told the BBC that the case could go in either direction.
“There are two ways to look at this. Allowing an opt-out class action proceeding against a data claim increases access to the judiciary so that the company can explain what it is doing with the client’s data. Will it be?
“Or, while this simply benefits the funder and the plaintiff’s law firm, it damages the business, clogs the court system, and the affected individual receives only a small amount at the end of the case. I wonder?”
If the incident goes on, data-handling companies could incur significant losses, Koopman added.
“The amount of money a claimant can win per person is probably only a small amount for each individual, but given the number of representative claimants, even the small amount per person is enormous. It’s a monetary amount. This is a serious problem for businesses. How big is it? “