Walter Tyvi Soriano – Court Ruling (United Kingdom, 2021)

Note: A range of claims were made in this case, but only the facts relevant to the data protection claim are considered here. This case is an appeal by the claimant in [https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2021/56.html Soriano v Forensic News LLC & Ors [2021] EWHC 56 (QB),] who brought claims against the defendants under libel, misuse of private information, data protection, malicious falsehood, and harassment. The judge in this case allowed the claimant to pursue his claims in libel and some of the claims in misuse of private information, but he did not allow the bulk of the claims in misuse of private information, and any claim in data protection, malicious falsehood, or harassment. The defendants appealed the claims the judge allowed. The claimant cross-appealed, "arguing that he should also have been allowed to pursue the claims in data protection and malicious falsehood." The appellant in this case is Walter Soriano, a businessman with ties to several governments. He was the subject of a series of 8 publications by the respondents, namely the owners of and contributors to Forensic News, which owns and operates an investigate journalism publication, and a blogger. The company's work is freely available and it is funded through "a mix of sources, including subscriptions, donations, merchandise sales and advertising revenue." Interestingly, all of the defendants were established or lived in the US. The claimant originally alleged that the defendants acted as data controllers of his personal data and violated Articles 5(1)(a), 10, and 44 GDPR. For example, he alleged that one of the publications by Forensic News "bore the defamatory imputation that the claimant was 'guilty of receiving illegal kickbacks and other corrupt payments from the Russian state under the façade of security consultancy work for Sochi Airport during the Olympic Games held in 2014'." A further claim under Article 5(1)(d) GDPR alleged that this publication "was inaccurate because he 'did