Our firm, acting on behalf of thousands of British Airways (BA) customers in a group action lawsuit against the embattled airline following its catastrophic 2018 data breach, has been granted a group litigation order by the High Court in London.
British Airways is facing legal claims from thousands of customers whose sensitive personal data was stolen and compromised by third parties who breached the company’s online reservations systems.
In September 2018, BA announced that their online reservation systems had been accessed by an unauthorised third party.
Between 21 August 2018 and 5 September 2018, the sensitive data of over 500,000 British Airways customers was compromised. The breach affected customers who had entered or amended data for their flight bookings on the British Airways website and app, including names, addresses, email addresses, debit/credit card details and CVV numbers.
The Information Commissioner’s Office has issued a notice of intention to impose a record fine of £183m on BA for their “poor security arrangements”.
However, the imposed penalty will not provide compensation to the customers affected by the breach. It will be divided up between European data authorities and, in the UK, the money that reaches the ICO will go straight to the treasury. Our firm, instructed by thousands of affected customers, is therefore continuing to seek compensation for those affected.
On Friday, 4 October 2019, Mr Justice Warby appointed our firm as the lead Solicitor on behalf of the claimants in the case and granted a Group Litigation Order, making it possible for thousands of claimants to bring legal action against British Airways. We represent around 6,000 individuals affected by the data breach.
An approved High Court notice advertising the GLO will be publicised shortly, and it will detail how affected customers may join the action. It is advisable, however that those affected do not delay and seek legal advice as soon as possible.
Partner, Harris Pogust said in regard to the breach:
“British Airways cannot evade its responsibility to recompense its victims in full. Data breach has become one of the most serious issues affecting all of us. The information provided to British Airways by its customers was some of the most personal information each of us possesses. When we entrust companies with such information, we expect a certain level of conduct to protect such information. Unfortunately, British Airways failed in that task and exposed credit card information for over 500,000 people to the world.”
