BA settles – a trend for future group litigation cases?
In July, British Airways accepted a settlement with claimants following its 2018 data breach. Laura Linkomies talked to law firm PGMBM which led the group litigation.
PGMBM (previously SPG Law), one of the law firms which brought the group litigation against British Airways (BA) to the High Court, was the lead firm in this Group Litigation Order (GLO). PGMBM has specialist expertise in group claims, and is currently litigating against other large corporations including EasyJet.
In excess of 420,000 people were affected by the BA breach back in 2018; credit card details of 244,000 people were compromised. As of 1 February 2021, 4,352 claimants were within the group litigation, and signed with the lead claimant, and approximately 1,000 clients had signed up with other claimant firms(1) – so only a fraction of those eligible. The cut-off point was extended to 3 June 2021, and the final number of claimants who had signed to the GLO which PGMBM organised on a no-win-no-fee basis could therefore be much greater. PGMBM could not confirm the numbers of claimants or the amount of compensation paid due to a confidentiality agreement with BA, but it is thought that it represented most of the group. At the time of gathering the claimant pool of people, it was suggesting that compensation could be up to £2,000 per person. However, another law firm, your Lawyers’ website referred to possible damages of up to £6,000 per claimant or up to £16,000 each in cases involving significant distress.
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