Summary

Keywords

Civil procedure — Class actions — Certification — Pleadings — Personal and confidential information provided to Capital One exposed or became vulnerable to exposure to public — Motion to certify class action against Capital One and Amazon Web for various torts related to data misappropriation and data misuse dismissed — Whether application for leave to appeal raises issues of national or pubic importance — Whether informational privacy protections under Charter apply in commercial/consumer context — Whether there is a gap in common law regime of data privacy.

Summary

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

The Capital One respondents (collectively, “Capital One”) collected data from people applying for Capital One credit cards. Capital One stored its data on servers of the Amazon Web Services respondents (collectively, “Amazon Web”). Amazon Web was hacked, and consequently the personal and confidential information provided to Capital One was exposed or became vulnerable to exposure to the public.

The motion judge dismissed the applicants’ motion to certify a class action against Capital One and Amazon Web for various torts related to data misappropriation and data misuse. Their pleadings were struck without leave to amend, and their certification motion was dismissed.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal.

Lower Court Rulings