(Please let me know if this needs to go onto another subforum)
I have made a County Court claim via MCOL against a large company (no names here for anonymity's sake) for breaching the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (also called PECR). In short, they sent me unsolicited marketing when I put an item in the basket on their website, entered my details but then abandoned the order. They sent me several texts, emails and so on - I had never opted into this, and had specifically 'opted out' when asked during the basket checkout process.
I sent them initial informal letters asking for settlement, then when they didn't offer me anything I sent them a Letter Before Action. They still didn't offer anything so I went through with my threat and took out the MCOL claim. Many months later, having sent them detailed POC, them sending a Defence, failed Mediation due to their incompetence, and completed DQs from both sides, I've finally received the Small Claims allocation letter from my local Court. The hearing is set for April and so I need to get in my Witness Statement just after the start of March.
I've been fine along till now, having read the various legislation online and stories/blogs of others who have also gone along this path (with most companies settling, and those that don't usually losing at Court). However, I'm somewhat unsure of what I should include in my Witness Statement and what I need to include in the Court bundle, and I haven't seen many guides anywhere. I can't afford the assistance of a solicitor for any length of time, unfortunately.
So my question to the experts on this forum is - what should I include in a WS in a case like this, and what do I need in the Court bundle? I would prefer not to upload copies of the POC, Defence etc. as they will be highly identifying and unique, but am more than happy to paraphrase. In essence, my case rests on them having breached Reg. 22 of the PECR in sending the unsolicited spam, and also thereby several of the DPA Principles, relating to unlawful, unfair, incompatible etc. processing of data, and not taking adequate technical measures to prevent this. The cases of Vidal-Hall v Google and Halliday v Creation are in my POC, as they clearly set out that a) material loss does not need usually to be proven, and if it does, de minimis is acceptable (and clearly present here), and b) compensation is due purely for the fact of breach of 'important consumer legislation' quoting the judgment in the Halliday case.
Their defence is mainly that, apparently, they claim I did opt in to marketing, and even if I didn't, I haven't suffered a loss of £750 (what I'm claiming). My response to that is - even if I had opted in (they provide no proof I have, I have proof I opted out), the wording on their site is far from sufficient to be DPA-compliant consent, and Vidal-Hall and Halliday make clear that loss isn't necessary.
Thank you for any advice anyone can provide! I really didn't think they would hold out this long, they've been very incompetent and unfriendly all the way (including assigning me a 'point of contact' who is never reachable, always 'on holiday', 'in a meeting ' etc.), so I want to 'punish' them in a sense, but if I can't work out what I need to say/do, I'll be inclined to withdraw the case to avoid having to pay them lots of costs.
I have made a County Court claim via MCOL against a large company (no names here for anonymity's sake) for breaching the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (also called PECR). In short, they sent me unsolicited marketing when I put an item in the basket on their website, entered my details but then abandoned the order. They sent me several texts, emails and so on - I had never opted into this, and had specifically 'opted out' when asked during the basket checkout process.
I sent them initial informal letters asking for settlement, then when they didn't offer me anything I sent them a Letter Before Action. They still didn't offer anything so I went through with my threat and took out the MCOL claim. Many months later, having sent them detailed POC, them sending a Defence, failed Mediation due to their incompetence, and completed DQs from both sides, I've finally received the Small Claims allocation letter from my local Court. The hearing is set for April and so I need to get in my Witness Statement just after the start of March.
I've been fine along till now, having read the various legislation online and stories/blogs of others who have also gone along this path (with most companies settling, and those that don't usually losing at Court). However, I'm somewhat unsure of what I should include in my Witness Statement and what I need to include in the Court bundle, and I haven't seen many guides anywhere. I can't afford the assistance of a solicitor for any length of time, unfortunately.
So my question to the experts on this forum is - what should I include in a WS in a case like this, and what do I need in the Court bundle? I would prefer not to upload copies of the POC, Defence etc. as they will be highly identifying and unique, but am more than happy to paraphrase. In essence, my case rests on them having breached Reg. 22 of the PECR in sending the unsolicited spam, and also thereby several of the DPA Principles, relating to unlawful, unfair, incompatible etc. processing of data, and not taking adequate technical measures to prevent this. The cases of Vidal-Hall v Google and Halliday v Creation are in my POC, as they clearly set out that a) material loss does not need usually to be proven, and if it does, de minimis is acceptable (and clearly present here), and b) compensation is due purely for the fact of breach of 'important consumer legislation' quoting the judgment in the Halliday case.
Their defence is mainly that, apparently, they claim I did opt in to marketing, and even if I didn't, I haven't suffered a loss of £750 (what I'm claiming). My response to that is - even if I had opted in (they provide no proof I have, I have proof I opted out), the wording on their site is far from sufficient to be DPA-compliant consent, and Vidal-Hall and Halliday make clear that loss isn't necessary.
Thank you for any advice anyone can provide! I really didn't think they would hold out this long, they've been very incompetent and unfriendly all the way (including assigning me a 'point of contact' who is never reachable, always 'on holiday', 'in a meeting ' etc.), so I want to 'punish' them in a sense, but if I can't work out what I need to say/do, I'll be inclined to withdraw the case to avoid having to pay them lots of costs.
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