Stunt v Associated Newspapers Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 1780 is a dispute between the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, and the eye-wateringly rich former son-in-law of Berne Ecclestone about coverage of the latter by the former. Simply googling the claimant’s name and seeing the Mail Online headines gives some idea of why he might find that coverage less than flattering. It is, in short, a dispute where most people would like both sides to lose. Continue reading
Costs and Vexatiousness: Upper Tribunal Updates
The procedural exemptions in sections 12 and 14 of FOIA are some of the most commonly used, and most commonly litigated, provisions of the legislation. Unsurprisingly, they have led to a disproportionate degree of appellate involvement. More surprisingly, they continue to do so. Three recent Upper Tribunal decisions add to that body of jurisprudence which ought to be considered by authorities faced with burdensome requests. This post is, as a result, quite burdensome itself.
Identifiability and the Unmotivated Intruder
It is not uncommon for public authorities who hold statistical data to decline to disclose specific figures in categories for which the number is fewer than five, on the basis of a fear that the number of affected people is sufficiently small that they are reasonably identifiable. In other words, they rely on section 40(2) FOIA to withhold the number. Continue reading
Have You Found Jesus? The CJEU Has
When opening the door to the Jehovah’s Witnesses it is probably uncommon for householders – even for the erudite and very pretty readers of this blog – to respond that although they have not found Jesus, they have found a copy of the register of data controllers, on which the Witnesses do not seem to appear. Continue reading
Data Protection in the CJEU: Developments
Three updates for data protection watchers about cases with a wide-ranging potential impact in the Luxembourg courts. Continue reading
Mixed Data in the Court of Appeal
Hot off (Thursday’s) press comes the CA judgment in DB v GMC [2018] EWCA Civ 1497, which will now be the leading case on the treatment of mixed personal data.