Half a million BA customers have been given the go ahead to bring compensation claims against the airline and Liverpool’s Exchange Chambers will be representing hundreds of them. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool-based lawyers are to fight for compensation for hundreds of people caught up in the British Airways (BA) data breach case.

Around half a million BA customers have been given the go ahead to bring compensation claims against the airline at the High Court over the data breach following a cyber-attack on the company’s systems in September 2018.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) investigated and found that 500,000 customers had been affected. Personal details, including payment data and addresses, were compromised by the hack, according to the ICO’s findings.

BA began to contact affected customers last year and a group litigation order has now been given the go-ahead, paving the way for a mass legal action against BA. The judge granted a window of 15 months for people to come forward and join the group litigation.

Now barristers from Exchange Chambers in Liverpool, Louis Browne QC and Ian Whitehurst, have been instructed by Hayes Connor Solicitors in Widnes to advise on the BA data breach group litigation and at present have a total of in excess of 500 clients.

Exchange Chambers, based at One Derby Square Liverpool, has more than 170 barristers specialising in all areas of law and its data breach and privacy practice is instructed in a range of high-profile cases including advising on group, representative and multi-party actions, privacy and reputation management cases and substantial individual data breach cases.