If our new episode wasn’t enough of a Christmas present, we’re delighted to announce another chance to win a “golden ticket” to our Information Law Conference on 14 March 2024!

Hidden among Robin’s insights about collective litigation of data/privacy claims is a line of (who else?) Gene-Wilder-as-Willy-Wonka dialogue. If you recognise it, email the quotation and time-stamp to panopticon@11kbw.com by the end of next week to be entered into our prize draw. (See below for T&Cs and privacy notice.)

Congratulations in the meantime to Ian Cutting-Jones (South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust) who recognised our Die Hard reference (“And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer”) and won our first competition! Welcome to the party, pal.

Honourable (and consensual) mentions to Paula Williamson (Partner, Privacy & Data Protection Solicitor at Excello Law, and Director of Content at Tenjin), Sadaf Anwar (Solicitor at City of London Corporation), Ben Fearnley-Sander (lawyer with the Government Legal Department) and Sam Grimley – all of whom got the correct answer but narrowly missed out on the prize.

We wish all our readers and listeners a joyful and reinvigorating festive season, and look forward to catching up in the New Year!

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Delo: clarity on ICO complaints

In October of this year, the Court of Appeal handed down its ruling in Delo v Information Commissioner [2023] EWCA Civ 1141 providing some helpful clarity on the Information Commissioner’s responsibilities vis-á-vis the handling of complaints lodged by data subjects.

This appeal involved two main issues:

(1) Is the Commissioner obliged to reach a definitive decision on the merits of each and every complaint or does he have a discretion to decide that some other outcome is appropriate?

(2) If the Commissioner has a discretion, did he nonetheless act unlawfully in this case by declining to investigate or declining to determine the merits of the complaint made by the claimant (“Mr Delo”)?

**Spoiler alert** The appeal was dismissed with definitive answers of no, to both (1) and (2) above.

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Panopticon Podcast, Episode 2: Collective Litigation (featuring Robin Hopkins)

All for one, or none for all?  When data breaches occur, they can affect thousands of people – but it’s in no-one’s interests to try to litigate thousands of similar claims.  Robin Hopkins tells Leo Davidson about the recent attempts to find a proportionate but effective approach to these claims, explains the upsides and pitfalls of the various options and gives his insights on the latest trends.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, whether that be Apple, Spotify, Podcast Index and Podchaser.

Make sure to check out the blog (panopticonblog.com) for details of our competition to win a free place at our flagship Information Law Conference on 14 March 2024!

Follow us on X/Twitter (@11KBWpanopticon) for exclusive bonus clips, with additional insights which were deemed too riveting / salacious for the main episodes.

Jamie Susskind writes for the Financial Times on AI regulation: “There is more to AI regulation than safety”.

The Court of Appeal has just handed down judgment in Dept for Business and Trade v IC and Montague [2023] EWCA Civ 1378, confirming that ‘aggregation’ of public interests for exemptions under FOIA is permissible. This, I promise you, is much more exciting than that opening line implies. 

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The day has finally come.

After we’ve spammed your inboxes with an announcement, a trailer and a competition, this is finally the post where you actually get to listen to the podcast we’ve been banging on about.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: Apple, Spotify, Podcast Index, Podchaser.