Key Facts
- •Andrew Prismall brought a representative claim for misuse of private information (MOPI) against Google UK Limited and DeepMind Technologies Limited on behalf of approximately 1.6 million individuals.
- •The claim arose from the transfer of patient-identifiable medical records from the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust to DeepMind in 2015.
- •The claim concerned the obtaining, storing, and use of patient data before the Streams app became operational in 2017.
- •The claim sought loss of control damages only, calculated using a 'lowest common denominator' approach.
- •The defendants applied to strike out the claim or grant summary judgment.
- •LCM Funding UK Limited acted as litigation funder for the Representative Claimant.
Legal Principles
Strike out and summary judgment standards
CPR 3.4(2)(a), CPR 24.2, Begum v Maran (UK) Limited [2021] EWCA Civ 326
Two-stage test for MOPI: reasonable expectation of privacy and balancing exercise
McKennitt v Ash [2006] EWCA Civ 1714, ZXC v Bloomberg LP [2022] UKSC 5
De minimis threshold for MOPI
Ambrosiadou v Coward [2011] EWCA Civ 409, Bloomberg
Importance of Article 8 right to respect for private life in medical context
Z v Finland (1998) 25 EHRR 371
Representative actions under CPR 19.8
CPR 19.8, Lloyd v Google LLC [2022] AC 1217
Damages for loss of control in MOPI
Gulati v MGN Ltd [2015] EWHC 1482, Lloyd
Outcomes
Claim struck out and summary judgment granted for the defendants.
The claimant lacked a realistic prospect of establishing a reasonable expectation of privacy or unlawful interference for every class member, even using a 'lowest common denominator' approach. The claim for loss of control damages was also deemed unsustainable.