GDPR damage claims – a potential for mass litigation in Germany?

Jan Spittka of Clyde & Co predicts that General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR‘) could lead to a potential for mass litigation in Germany. GDPR, which provides for material and non-material damage claims in case of an infringement of said Regulation, has seen these damage claims to be quite dormant for a while. When affected individuals go to court it is mainly to enforce data subject rights such as access to or erasure of personal data. Jan writes that in Germany it seems that this is about to change, with courts becoming more and more generous when awarding damages. This has triggered the interest of a ‘claimant industry’ consisting of specialised claimant-side law firms, litigation funders and legal tech companies. Read more.