The co-existence of administrative and criminal law approaches to data protection wrongs

All data protection Acts stipulate a variety of sanctions and remedies for breach of their provisions. Provision is usually made for a combination of penalties (fines and/or imprison- ment), compensatory damages and, where applicable, revocation of licences and deregis- tration. Sometimes, strict objective liability for harm is stipulated. Sometimes too allowance is made for the imposition of ongoing enforcement damages during the time in which a data controller fails to comply with the orders of a data protection authority. In many cases, compensation may be awarded for non-economic immaterial injury (emotional distress) as well as economic loss. In a very few cases, allowance is made for class actions to be brought.