Technology
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
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True. But the thing is, a few £100 doesn't really make up for the filing and legal costs. Particularly when there is a chance you won't be successful.
Again, proving that the specific breach led to the abuse and cost is the issue.
There is no limit, but that doesn't mean every claim has a potential for massive damages.
In practice, in the EU, it's just not worth pursuing. Being successful is challenging, and when you are successful in the vast majority of cases the payout just isn't worth it.
Meanwhile, a report to the local DPA or ICO or whatever is free of charge. Literally just sending an email or two. Also, if you did have a claim with any reasonable chance of success, action with the DPA would only strengthen your claim.
That's what you have Cease and Desists for.
In Germany and Austria (and potentially other European countries, I don't know), the recipient of a cease and desist letter has to pay the fee of the lawyer who sent the letter and also damages, unless they want to go to court over the matter. The price is usually ~€200-500.
These are often sent out in fairly large volumes and are used exactly for this case. Suing for a few €100 is not worth the effort, so you send out written warnings and most people will comply. You only sue in the few cases that won't comply, so that the threat is real.
This is mostly an issue for smaller companies, since a few €100 can really throw off their budget.
Considering that most Lemmy instances are one-man shows that are run as a hobby without any real budget, this is a serious threat here.
Have a look at the map of Lemmy instances: https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/map
A huge part of them (over 1/3) are operated out of Germany, and all of them would be vulnerable to this kind of legal attack.