Damages for Misuse of Private Information
Speaker: Dr Eleni Katsampouka, Kings College London
Join us via Zoom: https://uqz.zoom.us/j/87330009833
English law recognises privacy as a value which underlies various rules of tort law. However, as yet it recognises no general tort of invasion of privacy. Be that as it may, since the turn of the century the common law has developed substantially to protect particular privacy interests under a newly founded tort called ‘misuse of private information’ (‘MPI’).
Although the boundaries of liability under the tort of MPI have received extensive attention, remedial issues remain underexplored. In particular, there is little information regarding the sums awarded as compensation for MPI. It is also unclear what species of damages are, in principle, available in such actions.
This article explores damages for MPI. Part 1 provides a study of MPI damages awards in the last decade (ie, since MPI was authoritatively classified as a tort in Vidal-Hall v Google [2015] EWCA Civ 311). Part 2 surveys the varieties of damages that are currently available for this tort. Part 3 explores the juridical underpinnings of a specific head of damages commonly awarded in such actions, namely ‘damages for loss of control of private information’.
About the Speaker: Eleni Katsampouka is a fellow and Lecturer in Law at Christ’s College Cambridge. She has written extensively on the topic of punitive and exemplary damages and is co-editor, with James Goudkamp, of Landmark Cases in the Law of Punitive Damages (Hart, 2023).
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