By Stephen Hudson. Last Updated 9th September 2025. If you’re wondering ‘Can you sue a company for a data breach?’, this guide aims to help you. Personal data is a valuable asset for businesses. Many organisations require personal information to provide a service. A failure to protect such personal data can have serious consequences.
Personal data that has been breached due to security failures or poor data protection processes can have devastating consequences for the individual affected. Cybercrime and human error are among the main causes of data breaches today.
Therefore, if you have suffered financial loss or emotional distress due to a breach of your personal information, you may be eligible to make a claim. Operating on a No Win No Fee basis, our solicitors could support you.
To see if you can be connected, contact our advisors today:
- Call 0800 073 8804
- Start your claim online by completing our callback form
- Use the live chat on screen now.
4.8 (466 reviews)
Here’s our quick explainer video on how you can claim compensation:
Can You Sue A Company For A Data Breach?
Can you sue a company for a data breach? Yes. If certain criteria are met, you absolutely can sue a company for a breach of your personal data.
According to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent body for upholding information rights, a personal data breach occurs when personal data is accidentally or unlawfully altered, lost, or disclosed without authorisation, destroyed, or accessed. This definition, therefore, covers both human error and intentional data breaches.
Personal data is information that could identify who you are, such as your national insurance number or name.
There are 3 parties that need to be considered when discussing data breach claims:
- Data subjects: The living, identifiable individuals to whom the personal data relates.
- Data controllers: Organisations that decide when, how and why your personal data is to be processed.
- Data processors: External organisations that are contracted to process data on behalf of controllers. It is important to emphasise that not every controller will use external processing services and may choose to process data themselves.
Both data controllers and processors have legal obligations to protect personal data under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Failing to abide by these laws can result in security incidents where personal data is adversely affected.
The eligibility criteria to begin a data breach claim are as follows:
- A data controller or processor failed to uphold their obligations under data protection law.
- Their failure resulted in a data breach, in which your personal data was affected.
- The personal data breach resulted in you experiencing psychological distress, financial loss or both.
To get a free assessment of your eligibility to claim, or to ask any questions you may have, contact our advisors today using the contact details provided above.
4.8 (466 reviews)
How Could A Data Breach Impact You?
If your personal data is involved in a data breach, then this could potentially have different types of harmful consequences:
- Financial losses – If your personal data is exposed or lost due to a data breach, then this could lead to financial losses.
- Psychological harm – The knowledge that your personal data has been breached could potentially lead to severe psychological damage, such as anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
You may be asking, “Can you sue a company for a data breach?”. If you have suffered financial or mental harm due to a personal data breach that was caused by the organisation’s failings, then you may be able to make a personal data breach claim.
Contact our advisors for free today for more advice about starting a valid data breach claim.
Time Limits For Data Breach Claims
If you are suing for a data breach that compromised your personal data, you must also ensure that you start your claim within the correct time limit.
Generally, you will have 6 years to start a personal data breach claim. This time limit is reduced to one year if you are claiming against a public body.
To find out whether you are within the time limit to start a personal data breach claim, you can contact our team of advisors. They can also offer you free advice and answer any of the questions you may have. Furthermore, if they think you may have a strong case, they could connect you with one of our solicitors.
What Can You Do If You Think A Company Breached Your Data Protection?
The ICO states that an organisation’s duty under UK GDPR is to report certain personal data breaches within 72 hours of becoming aware. If a person’s rights and freedoms are likely to be adversely affected by a company data breach, they should also be notified as soon as possible.
However, if you suspect a breach, ask yourself these questions:
-
- What is the company saying about the breach? The first step to take if you think your data has been compromised is to contact the organisation. They should be able to confirm whether or not a data breach has occurred and if your personal data has been affected. The ICO suggests that you give them one calendar month to reply.
- Have I received a satisfactory response? If the answer to this is no, you can report a data breach to the ICO. They advise that you do this within three months of your last meaningful contact with the company, having asked for clarification if you weren’t satisfied with the initial response.
- Can I sue a company for this data breach? The ICO can investigate and take action based on their findings, but they cannot help with a compensation claim. A specialist data breach solicitor can, however. To get dedicated legal guidance from a professional, you should find out whether they can take on your claim. For example, you could call our helpline for a free consultation.
Although we have answered the question, “Can you sue a company for a data breach?” you may want to know what compensation you could collect. See the next section of this guide for a close look at how UK GDPR data breach compensation works.
Call us today for guidance on data breach claims and how to sue a company if you have been affected.
4.8 (466 reviews)
What Sector Has The Most Data Breaches?
The sector with the most reported data breaches in the first quarter of 2025 is health, accounting for 19% of the breaches. That represents 584 of 3,081 incidents reported to the ICO for the period of January to March. Other sectors featured in the ICO’s statistics include:
- Education and healthcare (15%)
- Retail and manufacturing (10%)
- Finance, insurance and credit (9%)
- Charitable and voluntary (8%)
- Legal (7%)
- Local government (7%)
- Land or property services (6%)
- Transport and leisure (3%)
- Social care (3%)
- General business (3%)
We have not covered all sectors, but it is important to note that all organisations handling the personal information of UK citizens are expected to adhere to data protection laws.
If you would like to discuss these statistics further, please reach out to an advisor today. They are here to answer any query you might have, from what the ICO is to questions like, ‘Can you sue a company for a data breach?’. Our advisors also offer straightforward, no-obligation case assessments to help people find out if they can sue a company for a data breach.
How Much Can You Sue A Company For A Data Breach For?
You can seek compensation for:
- Material damage: This is the financial loss resulting from a company data breach.
- Non-material damage: The psychological harm, such as stress, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The compensation table below shows multiple rows sourced from the Judicial College Guidelines. Data breach solicitors can use these guidelines when valuing psychological damage, as the document pairs suggestive compensation brackets with various forms of harm.
Compensation Table
Please note that the first entry in this table is not based on the JCG, and that this table has been included to act as guidance only.
| Harm | Severity | Potential Compensation |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Instances of Severe Psychological Harm + Financial Loss (e.g. Counselling Costs) | Severe | Up to £500,000 + |
| General Psychological Damage | Severe (a) | £66,920 to £141,240 |
| Moderately Severe (b) | £23,270 to £66,920 | |
| Moderate (c) | £7,150 to £23,270 | |
| Less Severe (d) | £1,880 to £7,150 | |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder | Severe (a) | £73,050 to £122,850 |
| Moderately Severe (b) | £28,250 to £73,050 | |
| Moderate (c) | £9,980 to £28,250 | |
| Less Severe (d) | £4,820 to £9,980 |
If you’d like our advisors to value your claim for free, why not get in touch?
4.8 (466 reviews)
Evidence In Personal Data Breach Claims
The evidence in personal data breach claims highlights both the impact the exposure of your personal information had on you, as well as showing that wrongful conduct has occurred.
Some examples of evidence you can use to sue for a company data breach include:
- The data breach notification letter from the data controller informing you that your personal information was affected by the data breach.
- Any further correspondence from the data controller.
- Medical diagnosis with psychological harm. Examples of this include medical reports from a psychiatrist and any prescriptions that were issued.
- Documents showing what material damage you have experienced. Such as receipts for purchases, prescription letters or details of any relocation costs you have incurred.
As we said above, the ICO can open an investigation into a data controller and take remedial action. While they cannot award compensation, the findings from this investigation can be strong evidence for your claim.
To ask our advisors, “Can you sue a company for a data breach?” and to get a free eligibility assessment, call the number below today. Our team is available 24 hours a day to take your call, offer free legal advice and put you in touch with a dedicated data breach solicitor if you have a valid claim.
No Win No Fee Data Breach Claims
If you contact our advisors about your potential data breach claim, they could review your case and determine if it’s valid. If they find it is, then they could put you in touch with one of our solicitors.
Our No Win No Fee solicitors can support a company data breach claim under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). When claiming under a CFA, you won’t have to pay your solicitor for their services before the claim starts or while it is being processed. You also won’t need to pay a solicitor’s fee for their services if the claim fails.
If your claim does win, then your solicitor will take a success fee to cover their services. This means a small and legally capped percentage of your compensation will be subtracted by your solicitor.
Get in touch with our advisors for free today to ask questions such as “can you sue a company for a data breach?” or to learn more about No Win No Fee solicitors. You can contact them by:
- Call 0800 073 8804
- Start your claim online by completing our callback form
- Use the live chat on screen now.
4.8 (466 reviews)
References
Here are some more of our guides:
- Learn about social services data breach claims
- Get information on mortgage broker data breach claims
- Find out about medical conditions data breach claims
These external sources could also be useful to you:
- Government advice on personal data breaches
- Guidance for you and your family
- Action the ICO has taken
If you have any questions about claiming or want clarity on our answer to ‘Can you sue a company for a date breach?’, just get in touch.
