BRITISH Airways has agreed to pay compensation to victims of a major data breach.
The airline has made a settlement with some customers affected by a hack back in 2018 that saw highly sensitive personal and financial information exposed.
But hundreds of thousands of British Airways travellers who also had their data stolen will still not receive a pay out.
Nearly half a million customers and staff had their data compromised, including card numbers, expiry dates and CCV security codes.
Personal information like billing addresses and emails were also compromised.
BA was fined £20million in October 2020 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) over the breach – far less than the £183.4million it originally faced.
Collective claims for compensation
LAWSUITS that result in compensation for many people are often referred to as “class action.
In England and Wales a Group Litigation Order (GLO) is often used for this kind of lawsuit and this kind of collective action has been made easier under the UK’s Consumer Rights Act 2015.
It means the courts can treat similar claims as one, rather than having hundreds or even thousands of separate individual claims.
There are a number of stages to bringing this kind of lawsuit, including the courts needing to give permission for a GLO.
Both sides can also appeal decisions at various stages making it a lengthy process with no guarantee of a payout.
Collective actions are rare – there have only been around 100 cases since 2000 according to the HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
Since the changes in 2015, there has been only one mass claim launched.
A court ruled in late 2020 that a case against Mastercard could go ahead after initially being thrown out in 2017.
Lawyers started legal action representing thousands of victims seeking compensation over the hack.
Now one law firm, PGMBM, has secured a payout. The amount of compensation has not been disclosed.
British Airways said in a statement: "We apologised to customers who may have been affected by this issue and are pleased we've been able to settle the group action.
"When the issue arose we acted promptly to protect and inform our customers."
The settlement is not an admission of liability by the airline.
Group action is similar to a class action lawsuit in the US, where multiple people can be represented in one claim together.
A Group Litigation Order (GLO) as it's known in the UK, means the courts can treat similar claims as one rather than having hundreds or even thousands of separate individual ones.
More than 4,500 people had joined the PGMBM claim in October last year.
The number of people involved in the settlement and who will receive a payout has not been revealed.
The law firm said the payout was an "extremely positive and timely solution" for those affected.
Harris Pogust, chairman of PGMBM, said: "The Information Commissioner’s Office laid out how BA did not take adequate measures to keep its passengers’ personal and financial information secure.
"However, this did not provide redress to those affected. This settlement now addresses that."
More than 5,000 people have joined a separate group claim over the BA hack, led by Your Lawyers.
But as many as 420,000 people are thought to have been affected by the BA hack in total, meaning hundreds of thousands of victims could miss out on a potential payout.
How to keep yourself safe from hackers and scammers
FOLLOW these steps to protect yourself from hackers in the future:
- Make a 'strong' password with 8 or more characters and a combination of upper case characters, numbers and symbols
- Don't do online banking on public WiFi, unless absolutely necessary
- Don't click on dodgy email links claiming to be from banks
- Use different passwords for different sites
- Never re-use your main email password
- Use anti-virus software
- Don't accept Facebook friend requests or LinkedIn invitations from people you don't know
- Think before you put personal info on social media
- Find My iPhone, Android Lost and BlackBerry Protect all allow you to remotely wipe a stolen phone. Set this feature up
- Only shop online on secure sites
- Don't store your card details on websites
- Password protect your phone and other devices
Your Lawyers believes that customers are owed more, and declined to be part of settlement negotiations with BA.
Aman Johan, lawyer and director of the law firm, said: "This is not the end for the approximately 380,000 people still yet to claim as this settlement only encompasses an estimated 40,000 victims.
"We continue to move our cases forward separately to this initial action on the basis that BA has tried to settle claims for as little as possible and, we fear, has tried to prevent more people from joining the action – yet another tactic by the airline to cut claimants out of the compensation case and reduce pay-outs."
The law firm believes that thousands of customers could receive compensation, worth on average of £6,000 each based on previous cases.
How do I claim compensation?
First of all, you need to have had your personal data compromised by the breach to be in line for compensation.
BA should have emailed you back in 2018 if you were a victim of the attack.
But if you never heard from the airline, and you're worried your details could've been accessed, you can ask BA to investigate.
You can contact the BA customer service department on 0344 493 0787 or via its website.
If your data was accessed, you can ask Your Lawyers to represent your case on a no win, no fee basis at bagroupaction.com.
There is no deadline set yet for victims to join the action, but the lawyers are encouraging people to come forward if they've been affected.
Group actions are rare and lengthy, needing to be approved as a collective claim before a case can even go ahead.
A settlement is when an agreement is reached outside of the courts, often before it gets there.
Lawyers taking on cases on a no win, no fee basis means they take a cut of any compensation payout you get.
A data breach at Easyjet is also the subject of a collective action and customers could be owed up to £2,000.
A claim against Experian could see everyone receive a £750 payout, if successful.
One million drivers could get a payout worth as much as £2,500 each over allegations of car emissions test cheating by lawyers who are preparing a legal claim.
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