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Costa Coffee Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide – How Much Compensation Can I Claim? – Amounts For Costa Coffee Data Breach

My Private Data Was Breached By Costa Coffee, Could I Make A Claim?

Have you recently fallen victim to a data breach? Do you believe that the organisation responsible for your data demonstrated failings that led to your personal information being compromised? If so, this article will present you with Legal Expert’s guide to making a data breach claim against Costa Coffee, provided you have evidence of the breach and the harm caused.

We want to help you understand what you could be entitled to for the subsequent damage that you’ve incurred as a result of your data breach, whether that be financially or mentally. In order to do this, we’ll aim to cover everything from what a data breach is, how one could happen, how the company responsible could be penalised for their failings and what steps you could take in the wake of the incident.

This should give you an idea about how best to proceed, using our top tips to guide you towards the compensation that you deserve, such as:

  • How reporting your data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) could support your claim
  • What to look for when searching for the best solicitor to handle your case
  • How a No Win No Fee agreement could benefit you financially in the claims process

On the other hand, however, you could simply get in touch with our team at Legal Expert today. Our specialist advisors are here to help 24/7, offering a free consultation on your unique situation. Therefore, you could have everything discussed in this guide explained to you, as well as receive free legal advice about your data breach.

Costa Coffee data breach claims guide

If our advisors believe that you could have valid grounds to make a claim, they can connect you with one of our solicitors to handle your claim and give it the best chances of success. In case you’re worried about the financial risks that are often involved in the claims process, our solicitors always work on a No Win No Fee basis to ensure that you don’t have to pay anything unless you receive the compensation that you deserve.

 

Whether you’d like a free consultation on your unique situation or you’re interested in learning more about what services our solicitors could offer you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at your convenience by using one of the following contact methods below:

  • Call 0800 073 8804 to speak to one of our specialist advisors
  • Write out a contact form to get a call back from us
  • Email info@legalexpert.co.uk to outline your circumstances to us
  • Use the chat window at the bottom of your screen for an immediate response

Select A Section

  1. A Guide To Data Breach Claims Against Costa Coffee
  2. What Is A Data Breach Claim Against Costa Coffee?
  3. The Impact Of The GDPR On The Hospitality Industry
  4. Fines Issued To Whitbread By The ICO
  5. What Are My Rights And Could The ICO Investigate My Case?
  6. What Compensation Could I Be Awarded?
  7. Calculating Compensation For A Costa Coffee Data Breach
  8. How To Complain About Your Data Breach And Claim Compensation
  9. How Lawyers Help You Make A Claim For A Breach Of Your Data
  10. No Win No Fee Data Protection Breach Claims Against Costa Coffee
  11. Contact A Data Breach Lawyer
  12. Related Guides

A Guide To Data Breach Claims Against Costa Coffee

In this guide, we want to help you understand how you could make a data breach claim against Costa Coffee if you have suffered harm, as well as what you could be entitled to for the subsequent damage that you’ve incurred as a result of your data breach.

In order to do this, we’ll begin by making sure that you have a clear understanding of what the terms data and data breach refer to, as we’ll use these throughout this article. Once this is established, we’ll then give you an idea of how a data breach could happen, with examples ranging from a hacker committing a cyberattack to a simple instance of human error. In addition, we’ve included a real case study of a data breach that affected Costa Coffee and an explanation of how it unfolded.

We’ll then provide you with some ways in which the company responsible for your data breach could be penalised for their failings and what steps you could take in the wake of the incident to both protect your privacy and hold the company accountable. These steps include contacting the company responsible directly to raise your concerns with them and reporting the data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to help establish liability and ideally support your claim.

Next, we’ll help give you an idea about what you could be able to claim for in terms of damages caused by your data breach, as well as how much compensation you could be entitled to for your suffering. We’ll present you with some estimated payout figures from the Judicial College Guidelines to illustrate and explore the ways in which your claim could be valued.

Lastly, we’ll leave you with some of our expert tips to help give your claim the best chances of success moving forward, including how to find the best solicitor for your case and how a No Win No Fee agreement could be financially beneficial for you.

As mentioned in the section above, our specialist advisors are here to help 24/7 and can offer you a free consultation on your unique situation. Therefore, you could have everything discussed in this guide and more explained to you by getting in touch today, as well as receive free legal advice about your data breach. What’s more, if our advisors believe that you could have valid grounds to make a claim, they can connect you with one of our solicitors to handle your claim on a No Win No Fee basis.

What Is A Data Breach Claim Against Costa Coffee?

We’ll begin our guide to making a data breach claim against Costa Coffee by making sure that you have a clear understanding of what the terms data and data breach refer to, as we’ll use these throughout this article.

The term data typically refers to any piece of your personal information that has the ability to be used to identify you. This could include, but is not limited to:

  • Your name
  • Your date of birth
  • Your national insurance number
  • Your home address
  • Your contact details
  • Your financial information

If any such personal information is compromised, meaning your privacy is breached, you could be entitled to compensation if you can prove the breach and harm caused. Get in touch with our team to find out more.

The Impact Of The GDPR On The Hospitality Industry

Organisations that handle data, like Costa Coffee, are legally required to act in accordance with legislation surrounding data privacy and security.

The EU introduced the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018 to help data subjects have more autonomy over the way in which their data was processed by an organisation. This was used as a framework by the UK, within which the Data Protection Act 2018 was enacted in attempts to create the same standard of practice.

Some regulations introduced by these laws that organisations must adhere to include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Organisations must obtain data subjects’ active consent to the ways in which their personal information can be interacted with
  • Data must not be kept by organisations for longer than is strictly necessary and consented to by the data subject
  • Organisations must ensure that they have a secure enough system in place to keep data subjects’ personal information protected
  • Data must be updated in regular intervals to ensure that it doesn’t become outdated and thus inaccurate

Fines Issued To Whitbread By The ICO

This section will explore a real case study of a past data breach suffered by Whitbread, the parent company of Costa Coffee, in attempts to illustrate how your data breach could have occurred.

In 2018, the Australian-based recruitment service company, PageUp, suffered a data breach when a hacker fraudulently infiltrated their systems. One of the companies that subsequently suffered as a result of this data breach was Whitbread, a top hospitality chain in the UK. As a result, personal information of job seekers and recruiters was exposed for those without authorisation to see.

This personal information included:

  • Names
  • Home addresses
  • Nationalities
  • Gender
  • Dates of birth
  • Employment information
  • Contact details, such as telephone numbers and email addresses

Although PageUp reported that information such as CVs, financial details and contracts were not compromised as part of the data breach, the fact still remains that a significant number of subjects’ information was made vulnerable. Enough information would have been sufficient for the hackers to monetise the breach, whether they use the details as part of identity theft or sell the data online on the dark web.

Whitbread advised any of its job applicants to change their passwords as they could have been put at risk as part of the data breach. However, they can’t be sure exactly what information was impacted and how it happened, so they stopped using PageUp as a third-party recruiting service in attempts to prevent their applicants from experiencing any future data breaches through the company.

Sources:

  • www.silicon.co.uk/security/cyberwar/whitbread-data-breach-234585
  • www.recruiter.co.uk/news/2018/07/data-breach-hits-whitbread-job-applicants
  • www.itproportal.com/news/costa-coffee-owner-whitbread-hit-by-major-data-breach
  • www.itpro.co.uk/data-breaches/31437/costa-coffee-and-premier-inn-hit-by-data-breach

How A Hospitality Company Could Breach Data Protection Rules

There are various circumstances that could lead to a data breach claim against Costa Coffee. From having insufficient security systems to demonstrating simple instances of human error, they could be held liable for your personal information being compromised.

As seen in the above case study, Costa Coffee has fallen victim to a data breach itself. Though this was the result of a third-party provider’s failings, a cyberattack could also happen to the company itself. As part of a cyberattack, information can be accessed in an unauthorised way by infiltrating security systems. The details collected could then be used to steal money or even orchestrate an identity fraud crime.

Data breaches can also be caused by human error, where those responsible for handling your data fail to do so appropriately, with some examples including:

  • Sending your data to the wrong recipient
  • Leaving your data in view of unauthorised eyes
  • Insecurely storing data, leaving it at risk of unauthorised access, damage or loss

What Are My Rights And Could The ICO Investigate My Case?

If you wish to make a data breach claim against Costa Coffee, you need evidence that they were responsible for it in order to be entitled to any sort of compensation. By reporting your data breach to the Independent Commissioner’s Office (ICO), this could help evidence your case if they find the organisation in question to be liable for it.

The ICO is an independent UK body that regulates the way in which organisations handle your data. If you report a data breach to them, they could investigate whether they believe the company to be liable for it. This is usually determined by whether or not they acted in accordance with data protection laws, of which non-compliance can be penalised by fines.

For you to be able to successfully report your data breach to the ICO, it’s important that you take note of the following:

  • The ICO only investigates data breaches that are reported to them within 3 months of your last meaningful communication with the responsible organisation.
  • The ICO does not award compensation to data breach victims in any circumstances. They are a regulatory organisation that simply function to encourage proper data protection practices.

What Compensation Could I Be Awarded?

In making a data breach claim against Costa Coffee, there are two different categories of damage that you could be compensated for; material damage and non-material damage.

  • By claiming material damage, this could allow you to recover any financial losses that you experienced as a result of your data breach. If financial data like card details are exposed, they can often create damage that persists over time, affecting things like your credit rating. Therefore, any potential future damage is also considered in your award for material damage.
  • By claiming non-material damage, this could allow you to be compensated for any mental or emotional distress that you’ve suffered as a result of your data breach. If you’ve experienced psychological harm as a result of your privacy being compromised, then this can have an effect on wider areas of your life, like your relationships and your ability to cope. Therefore, the extent of suffering and the impact that it’s had on your life will be assessed in order to calculate how much compensation you’re entitled to as part of your non-material damage award.

To learn more about calculating compensation for non-material damage, please refer to the section below for estimated figures.

Calculating Compensation For A Costa Coffee Data Breach

When the Court of Appeal in Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc [2015] decided that compensation for non-material damage can be awarded even if no financial harm has been suffered, it changed the way in which data breach claims were valued for future cases.

Prior to this case, data breach claimants had to prove material damage had been caused to them as a result of their data breach in order to receive any compensation. However, this ruling meant that data breach claimants can now be compensated for non-material damage alone, covering everything from emotional trauma to mental distress.

Like in personal injury claims, the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) are used as guidance, with some estimated compensation brackets demonstrated in the table below:

Edit
Suffering Severity Compensation Bracket Details
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Severe £56,180 to £94,470 Grossly disabling effects of trauma that are persistent in nature
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Moderate £7,680 to £21,730 Lasting effects of trauma with a good prognosis for recovery
Psychiatric Damage Less Severe Up to £5,500 Minor symptoms that resolve fully within a year or two.

For a more precise estimate of what you could be entitled to, please get in touch with our team.

How To Complain About Your Data Breach And Claim Compensation

As mentioned earlier in this guide, reporting your data breach to the Independent Commissioner’s Office (ICO) could help evidence your case if they find the organisation in question to be liable for it.

Another way in which you could help support your claim is by reaching out to the company directly to raise your concerns with them. By detailing exactly how you’ve suffered as a result of the data breach, the company may even offer you some form of compensation for the damage that they’ve caused you.

Whether or not this is the case, any response that you receive from them could be used against them regardless, providing that it contains some sort of admission of wrongdoing or failure that resulted in your data breach. This could evidence their liability and help make your claim for compensation much more straightforward for you.

How Lawyers Help You Make A Claim For A Breach Of Your Data

In sourcing legal help for your case, you could not only boost the chances of success that your claim has but increase the amount of compensation you receive in your settlement.

Whether you head down to your local high street to find a law firm near you or you ask around for any recommended solicitors, there are many ways that you could narrow your search for legal help. But why not save yourself the time and energy by simply getting in touch with us at Legal Expert today?

To learn more about how our solicitors could help your potential data breach claim against Costa Coffee, please continue reading or speak to one of our advisors today.

No Win No Fee Data Protection Breach Claims Against Costa Coffee

In case you’re worried about the financial risks that are often involved in the claims process, our solicitors always work on a No Win No Fee basis to ensure that you don’t have to pay anything unless you receive the compensation that you deserve.

Whether you’ve experienced financial shortfall as a result of your data breach or the cost of a solicitor is making you question whether you should make your claim, our team at Legal Expert are here to help. As part of a No Win No Fee agreement, you pay ‘no fees’ to your solicitor if they fail to win your claim for you. This also means that there are no hidden or upfront fees to worry about either.

If your solicitor does win your claim for you, then a ‘success fee’ will be taken to cover their legal expenses, which is a small percentage of your payout that’s clearly stated within your agreement. Therefore, you know there aren’t any unwanted surprises at any point of the claims process.

Contact A Data Breach Lawyer

At Legal Expert, our specialist advisors are here to help 24/7, offering a free consultation on your unique situation. Therefore, you could have everything discussed in this guide and more explained to you, as well as receive free legal advice about your data breach.

If our advisors believe that you could have valid grounds to make a claim, they can connect you with one of our solicitors to handle your claim and give it the best chances of success. In case you’re worried about the financial risks that are often involved in the claims process, our solicitors always work on a No Win No Fee basis to ensure that you don’t have to pay anything unless you receive the compensation that you deserve.

Whether you’d like a free consultation on your circumstances or you’re interested in learning more about what services our solicitors could offer you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at your convenience by using one of the following contact methods below:

  • Call 0800 073 8804 to speak to one of our specialist advisors
  • Write out a contact form to get a call back from us
  • Email info@legalexpert.co.uk to outline your circumstances to us
  • Use the chat window at the bottom of your screen for an immediate response

Related Guides

At Legal Expert, we’d like to thank you for reading our guide to making a data breach claim against Costa Coffee and hope that you’ve found our advice useful. Once again, if you require any more information about anything that we’ve included in our guide today, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our specialist advisors.

To finish, please take a look through some of the additional resources that we’ve left you with below that may be of help.

Our alternative claims guides:

Extra resources:

Other Useful Compensation Guides

 

Guide by Mavers

Edited by Billing