Lawyers launch TV blitz to woo claimants for BA action

ba_breachCompensation lawyers are ratcheting up their offensive to convince up to 500,000 victims of the British Airways data breach to join a class action against the airline, with the launch of a major TV ad campaign.

The group litigation order was first granted by the High Court in October 2019, giving legal firms, including SPG Law, Hayes Connor and Your Lawyers, a deadline of January 2021 to attract potential claimants.

The issue dates back to September 2018, when BA self-reported a cyber attack, triggering a probe by the Information Commissioner’s Office which found a raft of data was compromised by poor security arrangements, including log in, payment card, and travel booking details as well name and address information.

The regulator then issued a “notice of intent” on July 8 2019 to fine the airline £183m, although it eventually settled on a much lower penalty of £20m late last year.

Now PGMBM (which changed its name from SPG Law last year) has launched a TV blitz under the brand name of badatabreach.com, designed to drive disgruntled BA customers to sign up at its website to claim up to £6,000 each.

Despite little evidence of financial damage, lawyers are likely to use the breach as a test case for whether they can prove customers have suffered psychological injury or distress as a result of having their personal information compromised, and, if successful, could leave other brands wide open to huge compensation payouts.

Overall the company claims BA could be left with a £3bn total pay-out, although with PGMBM’s fee set at 35% of any damages, the law firm could potentially trouser hundreds of millions itself.

Perhaps unsurprisingly it is going gangbusters to get the customers in. Its website states: “This is not the first time that BA’s IT security systems have been compromised. They have treated their customers’ personal information poorly over the past few years and it is time to take action.

“You could be owed significant compensation in this case. Do not wait around; join our claim now and get back what you are owed.”

Related stories
Decision Marketing at 10: How GDPR changed the world
Virgin Media has 4 weeks to settle breach case ‘or else’
We can screw Virgin Media for billions, claims law firm
Virgin Media customers urged to join data breach action
BA ‘humiliates’ ICO by slashing £183m fine to £20m
Dentists bare teeth against BDA in breach legal action
Google faces £2bn GDPR class action over kids’ privacy
TalkTalk customers seek payout for double data breach
Law firm pounces on EasyJet breach with £18bn claim
Over 10,000 customers join EasyJet data breach action
Lawyers given 15 months to build BA breach legal case