Google Battles Landmark UK Class Action Over Alleged iPhone Tracking

Antony White, a lawyer for Google, told the first day of a two-day hearing that any maiden, US-style data protection lawsuit could only seek redress under English laws if a data breach led to claimants suffering damage.

A proposed multi-billion pound British class action against Google, which alleges the internet giant secretly tracked millions of iPhone users, is not viable and should not be allowed to proceed, the Supreme Court was told on Wednesday. Antony White, a lawyer for Google, told the first day of a two-day hearing that any maiden, US-style data protection lawsuit could only seek redress under English laws if a data breach led to claimants suffering damage. "It is not my case that loss of personal data may not have serious consequences, but it may not always do so in a way that attracts compensation," he said, adding that any uniform award would also fail to take into account differing phone usage. Richard Lloyd, former director of consumer rights group Which?, is leading the landmark claim that seeks to extend Britain's fledgling class action regime and could set the scene for vast, similar data protection claims against tech giants such as Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.