The ongoing data breach claim in the case of SMO v TikTok had been keenly watched by privacy practitioners to understand the ongoing implications of Lloyd v Google on representative actions for data breach litigation.
Following our recent article on this earlier in the year, Kelly Matthews and Charlotte Clayson provide an update.
Whilst the claim was issued back in 2020 to avoid difficulties around serving outside of the jurisdiction as a result of Brexit, no real progress was made until early 2022 when the representative action was still alive, but only just. A procedural hearing in March 2022 decided that there was a serious issue to be tried in this claim, and this temporarily left the door ajar for representative actions.
All eyes then turned to the anticipated hearing of TikTok's application for strike out, which was to consider how Lloyd v Google might be interpreted in view of the post 2018 data protection landscape, and whether damages could be awarded for the loss of control of data without proof of distress.
It seems now that this hearing was not meant to be, and neither was the representative action against TikTok. Following a long line of representative actions being withdrawn in the wake of the now infamous Lloyd v Google judgment, another one bites the dust as the claim has been withdrawn.
Now that the TikTok claim has been withdrawn, it leaves a question over whether any future representative actions will be pursued, how they can be approached, and the prospects of such a claim being successful.
