Scalable Capital must pay damages for data theft

One customer won the payment in court. The incident occurred in 2020 and around 33,000 other customers were affected at the time.

In October 2020, data was stolen from the Munich-based robot asset manager Scalable Capital. At that time, unauthorized persons are said to have gained access to the data of over 33,000 active or former customers. One of those affected therefore went to court. He has now won damages of 2,500 euros at the Munich I Regional Court, as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. The judgment is the first to be enforced in favor of a victim of data theft.

The court handed down the judgment on December 9. In it, the 31st Civil Chamber affirmed identity theft. According to the FAZ, this entitles the victim to compensation under Article 82 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Those affected should now be entitled to "appropriate compensation for pain and suffering" in the event of culpable breaches. Scalable Capital should also pay for future damages caused by the data theft. That could be expensive.

The judgment is not yet legally binding. Scalable Capital can still appeal and considers the decision of the regional court to be incorrect. It will now be interesting to see what significance the case will have in the future. More people could decide to take legal action.