CA-2024-000578 - [2025] EWCA Civ 1117

In the light of the judgment below and directions given by this court the appellants have prepared draft Amended Master Particulars of Claim. Relevantly, these abandon the misuse of private information claim and the assertion that the appellants’ personal data actually passed into the hands of any third party. Their claim now is that by processing their data in breach of statutory duty the respondent caused them to suffer “anxiety, alarm, distress and embarrassment” for fear that their personal data “may have” passed into the hands of unknown third parties. They seek to add the words “and/or as a result of uncertainty as to what had become of their ABSs and who may have opened it, and/or by the fact that their Personal Data may be or may have been misused.” This all appears legitimate in principle and I would grant permission to amend, without prejudice to the issues that arise about the viability of individual claims.