On 10 November 2021, the UK Supreme Court handed down the much-anticipated decision in Lloyd v Google, reversing the Court of Appeal’s earlier finding that a loss of control over data, in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 (“DPA98”), may be compensated even in the absence of any pecuniary loss or distress. The claim, which the Supreme Court found to have no real prospect of success in the form that it had been framed, was brought by Mr. Lloyd on behalf of some four million consumers as a representative action under Part 19.6 of the Civil Procedure Rules (“CPR”). In considering the viability of the claim, the Supreme Court looked generally at the availability of different forms of collective redress in the UK, including an extensive consideration of the authorities on representative actions. However, despite its length, the decision left a number of unanswered questions.
Five months later, on 20 April 2022, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy published the outcome of its July 2021 consultation on “Reforming competition and consumer policy”, which looked at ways in which the UK’s competition and consumer policies could be reformed to increase enterprise, innovation, productivity and growth. Nearly 200 responses were received to the consultation, which focused on three key themes: (i) promoting competition; (ii) updating consumer rights; and (iii) strengthening the enforcement of consumer law by individuals and regulators. The consultation included looking at whether the UK’s collective redress regime could be strengthened in order to increase access to justice for individuals whose consumer rights had been infringed.
In this article, we look at the UK collective redress regime, the impact of Lloyd v Google, and the outcome of the Government’s consultation.
